The Artsakh Republic is a presidentialdemocracy (in the middle of transforming from a semi-presidential one, after the 2017 referendum) with a unicamerallegislature. Its reliance on Armenia means that in many ways it functions de facto as part of Armenia, the country is very mountainous, averaging 1,097 metres (3,599 ft) above sea level. The population is predominantly Christian, most being affiliated with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Several historical monasteries are popular with tourists, mostly from the Armenian diaspora, as most travel can take place only between Armenia and Artsakh.

On 3 November 2006, the then-President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arkadi Ghukasyan, signed a decree to hold a referendum on a draft Nagorno-Karabakh constitution,[17] it was held on 10 December of the same year[18] and voters overwhelmingly approved the new constitution.[19] According to official preliminary results, with a turnout of 87.2%,[citation needed] as many as 98.6 percent of voters approved the constitution.[18] The First article of the document described the then Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as "a sovereign, democratic legal and social state". More than 100 non-governmental international observers and journalists who monitored the poll evaluated it positively, stating that it was held to a high international standard.[20]

However, the vote was criticised harshly by inter-governmental organisations such as the European Union, OSCE and GUAM, which rejected the referendum, deeming it illegitimate[20][21] The EU announced it was "aware that a 'constitutional referendum' has taken place," but emphasised its stance that only a negotiated settlement between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians could bring a lasting solution.[22]Secretary General of the Council of EuropeTerry Davis asserted that the poll "will not be recognized... and is therefore of no consequence".[20] In a statement, the OSCE chairman in office Karel De Gucht voiced his concern that the vote would prove harmful to the ongoing conflict settlement process, which, he said, had shown "visible progress" and was at a "promising juncture".[18]

The outcome was also criticised by Turkey, which traditionally supports Azerbaijan because of common ethnic Turkic roots, and has historically had severe tensions with Armenia.[23][24]

Another referendum was held on 20 February 2017, with a 87.6% vote in favour on a 76% turnout for instituting a new constitution. This constitution among other changes turned the government from a semi-presidential to a fully presidential model, and changed the official name from the "Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh" to the "Republic of Artsakh"/"Artsakh Republic",[25][26] the new name implies a claim to the areas controlled beyond the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, and the Presidential system allows for quicker decisions on security matters. The referendum is seen as a response to the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh clashes.[27]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is based in Stepanakert, the Republic of Artsakh operates five permanent Missions and one Bureau of Social-Politic Information in France. Artsakh's Permanent Missions exist in Armenia, Australia, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, and one for Middle East countries based in Beirut,[28] the goals of the offices are to present the Republic's positions on various issues, to provide information and to facilitate the peace process.

In his 2015 speech, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan stated that he considered Nagorno-Karabakh "an inseparable part of Armenia".[29]

According to the Constitution of Artsakh the army is under the civilian command of the government,[30] the Artsakh Defense Army was officially established on 9 May 1992 as a defense against Azerbaijan. It fought the Azerbaijani army to a ceasefire on 12 May 1994.[31] Currently the Artsakh Defense Army consists of around 18,000–20,000 officers and soldiers. However, only 8,500 citizens from Artsakh serve in the NK army; some 10,000 come from Armenia. There are also 177–316 tanks, 256–324 additional fighting vehicles, and 291–322 guns and mortars. Armenia supplies arms and other military necessities to Artsakh. Several battalions of Armenia's army are deployed directly in the Artsakh zone on occupied Azerbaijani territory.[32]

The Artsakh Defense Army fought in Shusha in 1992, opening the Lachin corridor between The Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (1992), and staged the defense of the Martakert front from 1992–1994.

The region of Nagorno-Karabakh is considered to be one of the most heavily mined regions of the former Soviet Union. Mines were laid from 1991 to 1994 by both conflicting parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the United Nations and the U.S. have estimated the number of mines in Nagorno-Karabakh at 100,000.[citation needed] There have been many civilian casualties resulting from the land mines, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) claims that 123 people have been killed and over 300 injured by landmines near the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh since a 1994 truce ended a six-year conflict between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.[33] The HALO Trust – UK based demining NGO, is the only other organisation conducting demining in Nagorno Karabakh.[34]

Today, Artsakh is a de factoindependent state, calling itself the Republic of Artsakh, it has close relations with the Republic of Armenia and uses the same currency, the dram. According to Human Rights Watch, "from the beginning of the Karabakh conflict, Armenia provided aid, weapons, and volunteers. Armenian involvement in Artsakh escalated after a December 1993 Azerbaijani offensive, the Republic of Armenia began sending conscripts and regular Army and Interior Ministry troops to fight in Artsakh."[35] The politics of Armenia and the de facto Artsakh are so intertwined that a former president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Robert Kocharyan, first became the prime minister (from 1994 to 1997), and then the President of Armenia (from 1998 to 2008).

However, Armenian governments have repeatedly resisted internal pressure to unite the two, due to ongoing negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group; in his case study of Eurasia, Dov Lynch of the Institute for Security Studies of WEU believes that "Karabakh's independence allows the new Armenian state to avoid the international stigma of aggression, despite the fact that Armenian troops fought in the war between 1991–94 and continue to man the Line of Contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijan." Lynch also cites that the "strength of the Armenian armed forces, and Armenia's strategic alliance with Russia, are seen as key shields protecting the Karabakh state by the authorities in Stepanakert."[36] Some sources consider Artsakh as functioning de facto as part of Armenia.[37][38][39][40][41]

At present, the mediation process is at a standstill, with the most recent discussions in Rambouillet, France, yielding no agreement. Azerbaijan has officially requested Armenian troops to withdraw from all disputed areas of Azerbaijan outside Nagorno-Karabakh, and that all displaced persons be allowed to return to their homes before the status of Karabakh can be discussed.[citation needed] Armenia does not recognise Azerbaijani claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, and believes the territory should have self-determination.[42] Both the Armenian and Artsakhi governments note that the independence of Artsakh was declared around the time the Soviet Union dissolved and its members became independent,[43][44] the Armenian government insists that the government of Artsakh be part of any discussions on the region's future, and rejects ceding occupied territory or allowing refugees to return before talks on the region's status.[45]

Representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Russia and the United States met in Paris and in Key West, Florida, in early 2001,[46] despite rumours that the parties were close to a solution, the Azerbaijani authorities – both during Heydar Aliyev's period of office, and after the accession of his son Ilham Aliyev in the October 2003 elections – have firmly denied that any agreement was reached in Paris or Key West.

Further talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan, were held in September 2004 in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit. Reportedly, one of the suggestions put forward was the withdrawal of the occupying forces from the Azeri territories adjacent to Artsakh and then holding referendums (plebiscites) in Artsakh and Azerbaijan proper regarding the future status of the region, on 10 and 11 February 2006, Kocharyan and Aliyev met in Rambouillet, France, to discuss the fundamental principles of a settlement to the conflict. Contrary to the initial optimism, the Rambouillet talks did not produce any agreement, with key issues such as the status of Artsakh and whether Armenian troops would withdraw from Kalbajar still being contentious.[47]

Talks were held at the Polish embassy in Bucharest in June 2006.[48] Again, American, Russian, and French diplomats attended the talks that lasted over 40 minutes.[49] Earlier, Armenian President Kocharyan announced that he was ready to "continue dialogue with Azerbaijan for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and with Turkey on establishing relations without any preconditions."[50]

According to Armenian foreign minister, Vardan Oskanyan, no progress was made at this latest meeting. Both presidents failed to reach a consensus on the issues from the earlier Rambouillet conference, he noted that the Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting was held in a normal atmosphere. "Nevertheless," he added, "the foreign ministers of the two countries are commissioned to continue talks over settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and try to find common points before the next meeting of the presidents."[51]

The major disagreement between both sides at the Bucharest conference was the status of Artsakh. Azerbaijan's preferred solution would be to give Artsakh the "highest status of autonomy adopted in the world."[52] Armenia, on the other hand, endorsed a popular vote by the inhabitants of Artsakh to decide their future, a position that was also taken by the[which?] international mediators.[53] On 27 June, the Armenian foreign minister said both parties agreed to allow the residents of Artsakh to vote regarding the future status of the region,[54] the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially refuted that statement.[55] According to Azeri opposition leader Isa Gambar, however, Azerbaijan did indeed agree to the referendum. Still, nothing official has confirmed this yet.[56]

The ongoing "Prague Process" overseen by the OSCE Minsk Group was brought into sharp relief in the summer of 2006 with a series of rare public revelations seemingly designed to jump-start the stalled negotiations, after the release in June of a paper outlining its position, which had until then been carefully guarded, U.S. State Department official Matthew Bryza told Radio Free Europe that the Minsk Group favored a referendum in Karabakh that would determine its final status, the referendum, in the view of the OSCE, should take place not in Azerbaijan as a whole, but in Artsakh only. This was a blow to Azerbaijan, and despite talk that their government might eventually seek a more sympathetic forum for future negotiations, this has not yet happened.[57]

On 10 December 2007 Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister said Azerbaijan would be prepared to conduct anti-terrorist operations in Nagorno-Karabakh against alleged bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[58] Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vladimir Karapetian previously rejected the allegations as "fabricated" and suggested the accusations of the PKK presence were a form of provocation.[59]

In 2008, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev stated that "Nagorno-Karabakh will never be independent; the position is backed by international mediators as well; Armenia has to accept the reality" and that "in 1918, Yerevan was granted to the Armenians. It was a great mistake, the khanate of Iravan was the Azeri territory, the Armenians were guests here".[60] On the other hand, in 2009, the president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan declared that "Artsakh will never be a part of Azerbaijan. Artsakh security should never be an article of commerce either, as to other issues, we are ready to discuss them with Azerbaijan.".[61] In 2010 president of Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in his speech in the Chatham House of the British Royal Institute of International Affairs declared that "Karabakh was never a part of independent Azerbaijan: it was annexed to Azerbaijan by a decision of the Soviet Union party body, the people of Karabakh never put up with this decision, and upon the first opportunity, seceded from the Soviet Union fully in line with the laws of the Soviet Union and the applicable international law".[62]

On 14 March 2008, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution by a vote of 39 to 7, with 100 abstentions, reaffirming Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, expressing support for that country's internationally recognised borders and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all Armenian forces from all occupied territories there, the resolution was supported mainly by members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and GUAM, Azerbaijan is a member in both groups, as well as other nations facing breakaway regions. The resolution was opposed by all three members of the OSCE Minsk Group.[63]

On 20 May 2010, the European Parliament adopted a resolution "on the need for an EU strategy for the South Caucasus", which states that EU must pursue a strategy to promote stability, prosperity and conflict resolution in the South Caucasus,[64] the resolution "calls on the parties to intensify their peace talk efforts for the purpose of a settlement in the coming months, to show a more constructive attitude and to abandon preferences to perpetuate the status quo created by force and with no international legitimacy, creating in this way instability and prolonging the suffering of the war-affected populations; condemns the idea of a military solution and the heavy consequences of military force already used, and calls on both parties to avoid any further breaches of the 1994 ceasefire". The resolution also calls for withdrawal of Armenian forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan, accompanied by deployment of international forces to be organised with respect of the UN Charter in order to provide the necessary security guarantees in a period of transition, which will ensure the security of the population of Artsakh and allow the displaced persons to return to their homes and further conflicts caused by homelessness to be prevented; and states that the EU believes that the position according to which Artsakh includes all occupied Azerbaijani lands surrounding Artsakh should rapidly be abandoned. It also notes "that an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh could offer a solution until the final status is determined and that it could create a transitional framework for peaceful coexistence and cooperation of Armenian and Azerbaijani populations in the region."[65]

On 26 June 2010, the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group's Co-Chair countries, France, Russia, and United States made a joint statement, reaffirming their "commitment to support the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan as they finalize the Basic Principles for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict".[66]

After Armenia established diplomatic relations with Tuvalu in March 2012, it was speculated in the press that Armenia was attempting to persuade the small island nation to be the first state to recognise Artsakh's independence.[67] Tuvalu recognised two other disputed states in the Caucasus, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the previous year.

No UN member states have recognised Artsakh, although some other unrecognised states have done so. Various sub-national administrations have issued calls for recognition of Artsakh by their national governments.

In May 2012, the Rhode Island House of Representatives in the United States passed a resolution calling on President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to recognise Republic of Artsakh. The resolution, adopted by the state's House of Representatives, encourages Artsakh's "efforts to develop as a free and independent nation."[68]

On October 24, 2012, the Legislative Council of Australia’s New South Wales Parliament adopted a resolution recognising the Republic of Artsakh and the right to self-determination of its Armenian people. The motion acknowledges the 20th anniversary of independence for the Republic of Artsakh, it supports the right to self-determination of its people, and it “calls on the Commonwealth Government [of Australia] to officially recognise the independence of the Republic of Artsakh and strengthen Australia’s relationship with the Artsakh and its citizens”.[70]

In May 2013, the Louisiana State Senate in the United States passed a resolution accepting Artsakh's independence and expressed support for the Artsakh Republic's efforts to develop as a free and independent nation.[74]

In May 2014, the Louisiana State Senate adopted a resolution saluting the Artsakh Republic’s independence and urging the U.S. President and Congress to "Support Self-Determination and Democratic Independence of the Artsakh Republic".[79]

On 27 August 2014, the California State Senate voted unanimously (23-0) to pass Assembly Joint Resolution 32, recognising the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh as a sovereign state. The resolution encourages Artsakh’s efforts to develop as a free and independent nation and formally calls upon the President and Congress of the United States to support the self-determination and democratic independence of the Artsakh Republic.[80][81]

On 3 March 2016, Georgia became the sixth state of the U.S. to recognize the independence of Artsakh.[82]

On 30 March 2016, Hawaii became the seventh state to unanimously recognize Artsakh, the Hawaii House of Representatives placed bill H.R. 167 into effect despite pressure from Azerbaijani diplomats and Washington D.C.[83]

On 30 March 2016, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan issued a declaration that US foreign state policy is determined at a federal government level, and that the United States does not recognize the Artsakh Republic.[84] This statement was delivered shortly after Azerbaijan's president, president Ilham Aliyev, arrived in Washington D.C for bilateral discussions.

On 5 May 2016 the Government of Armenia approved the bill on recognition of the independence of the Republic of Artsakh. It was announced, that the recognition of the independence of the Artsakh Republic is "due to the results of discussions between Armenia and Artsakh, [and] considering further developments, including external factors.”[85]

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has resulted in the displacement of 528,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenian territories[citation needed] (this figure does not include new born children of these IDPs) including Artsakh, and 220,000 Azeris, 18,000 Kurds and 3,500 Russians fled from Armenia to Azerbaijan from 1988 to 1989. The Azerbaijani government has estimated that 63 percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) lived below the poverty line as compared to 49% of the total population. About 154,000 lived in the capital, Baku. According to the International Organization for Migration, 40,000 IDPs lived in camps, 60,000 in underground dugout shelters, and 20,000 in railway cars. Forty-thousand IDPs lived in EU-funded settlements and UNHCR provided housing for another 40,000. Another 5,000 IDPs lived in abandoned or rapidly deteriorating schools. Others lived in trains, on roadsides in half-constructed buildings, or in public buildings such as tourist and health facilities. Tens of thousands lived in seven tent camps where poor water supply and sanitation caused gastro-intestinal infections, tuberculosis, and malaria.[86]

The government required IDPs to register their place of residence in an attempt to better target the limited and largely inadequate national and international assistance due to the Armenian advocated and US imposed restrictions on humanitarian aid to Azerbaijan. Many IDPs were from rural areas and found it difficult to integrate into the urban labor market. Many international humanitarian agencies reduced or ceased assistance for IDPs citing increasing oil revenues of the country,[87] the infant mortality among displaced Azerbaijani children is 3–4 times higher than in the rest of the population. The rate of stillbirth was 88.2 per 1,000 births among the internally displaced people. The majority of the displaced have lived in difficult conditions for more than 13 years.[88]

280,000 persons—virtually all ethnic Armenians who fled Azerbaijan during the 1988–1993 war over the disputed region of Artsakh—were living in refugee-like circumstances in Armenia.[89] Some left the country, principally to Russia, their children born in Armenia acquire citizenship automatically. Their numbers are thus subject to constant decline due to departure, and de-registration required for naturalization. Of these, about 250,000 fled Azerbaijan-proper (areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh); approximately 30,000 came from Nagorno-Karabakh. All were registered with the government as refugees at year's end.[89]

The Artsakh Republic is mountainous, a feature which has given it its former name (from the Russian for "Mountainous/Highland Karabakh"), it is 11,500 km2 (4,440 sq mi) in area, bordering Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. The highest peaks in the country are Mount Mrav, 3,340 metres (10,958 ft), and Mount Kirs 2,725 metres (8,940 ft). The largest water body is the Sarsang reservoir, and the major rivers are the Terter and Khachen rivers.[90] The country is on a plateau which slopes downwards towards the east and southeast, with the average altitude being 3,600 ft (1,097 m) above sea level. Most rivers in the country flow towards the Artsakh valley.[91]

The climate is mild and temperate, the average temperature is 11 °C (52 °F), which fluctuates annually between 22 °C (72 °F) in July and −1 °C (30 °F) in January. The average precipitation can reach 71 cm (28 in) in some regions, and it is foggy for over 100 days a year.[91]

Over 2,000 kinds of plants exist in Artsakh, and more than 36% of the country is forested, the plant life on the steppes is mostly semi-desert vegetation, and alpine and tundra environments[clarification needed] can be found above the forest in the highlands and mountains.[91]

The Republic of Artsakh has eight administrative divisions, their territories include the five districts of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), the Shahumyan Region in the Azerbaijan SSR which is currently under Azerbaijani control, and the seven districts around the former NKAO that are under the control of the Artsakhi forces.

Following the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's declaration of independence, the Azerbaijani government abolished the NKAO and created Azerbaijani districts in its place, as a result, some of the Republic of Artsakh's divisions correspond with the Azerbaijani districts, while others have different borders. A comparative table of the current divisions of Artsakh and the corresponding districts of Azerbaijan follows:[92]

The Republic of Artsakh claims Shahumian, which was not part of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Representatives from Shahumian declared independence along with Artsakh, and the proclamation of Artsakh includes the Shahumian region within its borders.[94] Unlike the rest of Artsakh, Shahumian remains under Azerbaijani control.

In 2002, the country's population was 145,000, made up of 95% Armenians and 5% others.[90][dubious– discuss] In March 2007, the local government announced that its population had grown to 138,000, the annual birth rate was recorded at 2,200–2,300 per year, an increase from nearly 1,500 in 1999.

OSCE report, released in March 2011, estimates the population of the "seven occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh" to be 14,000, and states "there has been no significant growth in the population since 2005."[95][96]

Until 2000, the country's net migration was at a negative,[97] for the first half of 2007, 1,010 births and 659 deaths were reported, with a net emigration of 27.[98]

According to age group: 15,700 (0–6), 25,200 (7–17) 75,800 (18–59) and 21,000 (60+)

The Gandzasar monastery ("Գանձասար" in Armenian) is a historical monastery in Artsakh. Another is Dadivank Monastery (Armenian: Դադիվանք) also Khutavank (Armenian: Խութավանք – Monastery on the Hill) that was built between the 9th and 13th century. Artsakhi government's aim is to include the Gandzasar Monastery into the directory of the UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.

Just uphill from the cathedral in Shushi is the Kanach Zham (Green Church in Armenian) built in 1847.

Amaras Monastery (4th century) was a monastery was established by the foremost Armenian saint, St. Gregory the Enlightener, who baptized Armenia into the world's first Christian state in 301 AD. Amaras also hosted the first school where St. Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, taught the new script to pupils, in the 5th century. The Amaras Monastery's location is in the Martuni District.

Saint Yeghishe Arakyal Monastery (5th–13th centuries) commemorating St. Yeghishe, the famous evangelizer of Armenia's eastern lands, the church serves as a burial ground for the 5th century's King Vachagan II the Pious, the most well-known representative of the Arranshahik line of east Armenian monarchs. The monastery is located in the Martakert District.

Dadivank Monastery (13th century) is one of the most architecturally and culturally significant Monasteries in Artsakh. The western façade of Dadivank's Memorial Cathedral bears one of the most extensive Armenian lapidary (inscribed-in-stone) texts, and has one of the largest collection of Medieval Armenian frescoes. Dadivank is named after St. Dadi, a disciple of Apostle Thaddeus who preached the Holy Gospel in Artsakh in the 1st century. St. Dadi's tomb was later discovered by archeologists in 2007, the monastery is in the Shahumian District.

Gtichavank Monastery (13th century) has design features shared with the architectural style of medieval Armenia's capital city of Ani. The monastery is located in the Hadrut District.

Bri Yeghtze Monastery (13th century) that centers on embedded khachkars, unique-to-Armenia stone memorials with engraved crosses, the monastery is located in the Martuni District.

Yerits Mankants Monastery (17th century) (meaning "three infants" in Armenian) is known for hosting the seat of Artsakh's rival clergy to that of the Holy See of Gandzasar. The monastery is located in the Martakert District.

Following the ceasefire, the Stepanakert-based administration launched various programs aimed at bringing in permanent Armenian settlers to the depopulated lands, including into regions previously populated by Azeris, with those that bordered Armenia – Lachin and Kalbajar – being the priority.[102] Incentives in the form of free housing, access to property, social infrastructure, inexpensive or sometimes free electricity, running water, low taxes or limited tax exemptions were offered to new settlers.

Azerbaijan regards this as a violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Armenia became party in 1993, whereby "[t]he Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies",[103] the ruling party of Azerbaijan accuses the Armenian side of artificially changing the demographic situation and the ethnic composition of the occupied region so that it can lay future claims to them, comparing this to the 1950s campaign of resettling diaspora Armenians in previously Azeri-populated locales in Soviet Armenia where Azeris were forcibly deported from in 1948–1950.[104]

In 1979, the total Armenian population of the districts of Kalbajar, Lachin, Qubadli, Zangilan, Jabrayil, Fuzuli and Agdam was around 1,400 people.[105] An OSCE fact-finding mission established at Azerbaijan's request visited these regions in February 2005 with the intention to assess the scale of the settlement attempts, the mission's findings showed that these districts had as of 2005 an overall population of 14,000 persons, mostly living in precarious social conditions. It consisted primarily of ethnic Armenians displaced from non-conflict zones of Azerbaijan during the war, it was noted, however, that most of them had settled in the conflict zone after having lived in Armenia for several years and some held Armenian passports and even voted in Armenian elections. A smaller segment of the settlers were originally from the towns of Gyumri and Spitak in Armenia who had lived in temporary shelters following the devastating 1988 earthquake before moving to Karabakh, as well as a small number of natives of Yerevan who moved there for financial reasons.[106] A field assessment mission revisited the region in October 2010, confirming that there had not been much growth in population or change in living conditions of the settlers,[107] the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group who visited Artsakh, Kalbajar and Lachin in 2014 reported seeing signs of improvements in infrastructure, but could not observe any indications that the size of the population had changed in recent years.[108]

By June 2015, an estimated 17,000 of Syria's once 80,000-strong Armenian population had fled the civil war and sought refuge in Armenia.[109]David Babayan, spokesperson of the Artsakhi leader Bako Sahakyan, confirmed that some of those refugees had been resettled in Artsakh.[110]The Economist put the number of the resettled families at 30 as of June 2017.[111] In December 2014, Armenian media cited local municipal authorities in stating that dozens of Syrian Armenian families had been resettled in the disputed zone, in particular in the city of Lachin and the village of Xanlıq in Qubadli.[112] Azerbaijan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmar Mammadyarov expressed his concern over Armenia's attempts to change the demographic situation in the region and informed of his intention to raise this issue with the Minsk Group.[113]

The socio-economic situation of the Republic of Artsakh was greatly affected by the conflict. Yet, foreign investments are beginning to come, the origin of most venture capital comes from Armenians in Armenia, Russia, United States, France, Australia, Iran, and the Middle East.

Notably the telecommunications sector was developed with Karabakh Telecom[114] investing millions of dollars in mobile telephony, spearheaded by a Lebanese company.

Copper and gold mining has been advancing since 2002 with development and launch of operations at Drmbon deposit.[115] Approximately 27–28 thousand tons (wet weight) of concentrates are produced[116] with average copper content of 19–21% and gold content of 32–34 g/t.[117]

The banking system is administered by Artsakhbank (the state bank) and a number of Armenian banks, the republic uses the Armenian dram.

Wine growing and processing of agricultural products, particularly wine (i.e., storage of wine, wine stuff, cognac alcohol) is one of the prioritized directions of the economic development.[118]

The republic is developing a tourist industry geared to Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, the republic has been showing a major increase in tourists over the last several years, which keeps growing because of Artsakh's many cultural sights. There are currently nine[119] hotels in Stepanakert, the Artsakh development agency says 4,000 tourists visited Artsakh in 2005. The figures rose to 8,000 in 2010 (excluding visitors from Armenia),[120] the agency cooperates with the Armenia Tourism Development Agency (ATDA) as Armenia is the only way tourists (mainly Armenians) can access Artsakh. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh informs of continuous expansion visitors' geography.[121]

The Tourism Development Agency of Artsakh was established in Yerevan as a non-governmental organisation in the Republic of Armenia to promote tourism further in Artsakh, it makes preparations for tour operators, travel agencies and journalists covering the region, and arranges for hotel services, shopping, catering, recreation centers.

The ancient city of Tigranakert, one of four cities that were founded in the 1st century BC in opposite corners of Armenia and named after King Tigran II the Great, ruler of the short-lived Armenian Empire. Tigranakert, which has been undergoing archaeological excavations since 2005, is located in Mardakert District.

Fort Mayraberd (10th–18th centuries) served as the primary bulwark against Turko-nomadic incursions from the eastern steppe. The fort is found to the east of the region's capital city of Stepanakert.

Govharagha Mosque (18th century), a mosque located in the city of Shushi.

Janapar is a marked trail through mountains, valleys and villages of Artsakh, with monasteries and fortresses along the way. The trail is broken into day hikes, which will bring tourists to a different village each night,[122] the paths have existed for centuries, but now are marked specifically for hikers. The Himnakan Janapar (backbone trail), marked in 2007, leads from the northwest region of Shahumian to the southern town of Hadrut. Side trails and mini trails take one to additional parts of Artsakh, the important sites passed along this hike include Dadivank Monastery, Gandzasar monastery, Shushi, the Karkar Canyon with its high cliffs, Zontik Waterfall and the ruins of Hunot and Gtichavank monastery.

Cost of staying in Artsakh is relatively cheaper in comparison with the region itself and varies approximately between 25 - 70 USD for a single person as of May, 2017.[119] However, for those who travelled Artsakh cannot enter Azerbaijan as the country does not recognize Artsakh as a de facto state.

The transportation system damaged by the conflict has been noticeably improved during the last several years: the North-South Artsakh motorway alone has largely facilitated in the development of the transportation system.[123]

The 169 kilometres (105 mi) Hadrut-Stepanakert-Askeran-Martakert motorway, the locals say, is the lifeline of Artsakh. $25 million donated during the Hayastan All-Armenian Foundation telethons have been allotted for the construction of the road.[123][124]

The route from the Armenian capital Yerevan to Stepanakert is estimated to be reduced from the current 8–9 hours drive once major infrastructures are realized.[125]

Stepanakert Airport, the sole civilian airport of the Republic of Artsakh, located about 8 kilometres (5 miles) east of the capital, has been closed since the onset of the war more than twenty years ago. However, the government was pressing ahead with plans to reopen the airport as of early 2011, and raised about 1 billion drams ($2.8 million) for its reconstruction from unspecified "charitable sources." It began building a new airport terminal and repairing the runway in late 2009. In any case, its unresolved status makes direct air communication with other countries all but impossible according to IATA conventions.[126] Though originally scheduled to launch the first commercial flights on 9 May 2011, Artsakh officials postponed a new reopening date throughout the whole of 2011;[127] in May 2012, the director of the Artsakh Civil Aviation Administration, Tigran Gabrielyan, announced that the airport would begin operations in mid-2012.[128] However the airport still remains closed due to political reasons.

Education in Artsakh is compulsory, and is free up to the age of 18, the education system is inherited from the old system of the Soviet Union.[129]

Artsakh's school system was severely damaged because of the conflict, but the government of the Republic of Artsakh with considerable aid from the Republic of Armenia and donations from the Armenian diaspora has rebuilt many of the schools. The republic has around 250 schools of various sizes, with more than 200 lying in the regions, the student population estimated at more than 20,000 study, with almost half in the capital city of Stepanakert.

Artsakh State University was founded by Artsakh and Armenian governments' joint efforts, with main campus in Stepanakert. The university opening ceremony took place on 10 May 1992.

Artsakh State Museum is the historical museum of the Republic of Artsakh. Located at 4 Sasunstsi David Street, in Stepanakert, the museum offers an assortment of ancient artifacts and Christian manuscripts. There are also more recent items, ranging in date from the 19th century to World War II and from events of the Karabakh Independence War.

Artsakh has its own brand of popular music, as Artsakh question became a pan-Armenian question, Artsakh music was further promoted worldwide.

Many nationalist songs, performed by Artsakhi artists, as well as artists from Republic of Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, show support for the Artsakh independence movement; videos for the songs incorporate footage of Artsakhi military campaigns. These videos are posted to sites such as YouTube, where they often generate conflicting nationalist Armenian and Azerbaijani comments.

Sports in the Republic of Artsakh are organised by the Artsakh Ministry of Culture and Youth. Due to the non-recognition of Artsakh, sports teams from the country cannot compete in most international tournaments.

Football is the most popular sport in Artsakh. Stepanakert has a well-built football stadium. Since the mid-1990s, football teams from Artsakh started taking part in some domestic competitions in the Republic of Armenia, the Lernayin Artsakh represents the city of Stepanakert. The Artsakh football league was launched in 2009, the Artsakh national football team was formed in 2012 and played their first competitive match against the Abkhazia national football team in Sokhumi, a match that ended with a result of 1–1 draw.[131][132] The return match between the unrecognized teams took place at the Stepanakert Stadium, on 21 October 2012, when the team from Artsakh defeated the Abkhazian team 3–0.

There is also interest in other sports, including basketball and volleyball. Sailing is practiced in the town of Martakert.

Artsakh sports teams and athletes also participate in the Pan-Armenian Games organised in the Republic of Armenia.

^Hughes, James (2002). Ethnicity and Territory in the Former Soviet Union: Regions in Conflict. London: Cass. p. 211. ISBN978-0-7146-8210-5. Indeed, Nagorno-Karabakh is de facto part of Armenia.

^Cornell, Svante (2011). Azerbaijan Since Independence. New York: M.E. Sharpe. p. 135. ISBN978-0-7656-3004-9. Following the war, the territories that fell under Armenian control, in particular Mountainous Karabakh itself, were slowly integrated into Armenia. Officially, Karabakh and Armenia remain separate political entities, but for most practical matters the two entities are unified.

^Hughes, James (2002). Ethnicity and Territory in the Former Soviet Union: Regions in Conflict (1. publ. ed.). London: Cass. p. 211. ISBN9780714682105. Indeed, Nagomo- Karabakh is de facto part of Armenia.

^Central Asia and The Caucasus, Information and Analytical Center, 2009, Issues 55–60, Page 74, "Nagorno-Karabakh became de facto part of Armenia (its quasi-statehood can dupe no one) as a result of aggression."

^Cornell, Svante (2011). Azerbaijan Since Independence. New York: M.E. Sharpe. p. 135. ISBN9780765630049. Following the war, the territories that fell under Armenian control, in particular Mountainous Karabakh itself, were slowly integrated into Armenia. Officially, Karabakh and Armenia remain separate political entities, but for most practical matters the two entities are unified.

^"Nagorno-Karabakh". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. Retrieved 2013-11-15.

Nagorno-Karabakh
–
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mountainous and forested. Azerbaijan has not exercised political authority over the region since the advent of the Karabakh movement in 1988, the region is usual

1.
Snow-covered Lesser Caucasus south of the Greater Caucasus. About 1800 the eastern side of the Lesser Caucasus was ruled by the Ganja Khanate in the north and the Karabagh Khanate in the south. The Karabagh Khanate extended east into the lowlands, hence the name Nagorno- or Highland- Karabagh.

Armenian language
–
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Arm

1.
Armenian manuscript, 5th–6th century.

2.
regions where Armenian is the language of the majority

3.
The Four Gospels, 1495, Portrait of St Mark Wellcome with Armenian inscriptions

4.
First Armenian language Bible.

Azat u ankakh Artsakh

1.
Ազատ ու անկախ Արցախ

List of states with limited recognition
–
A number of polities have declared independence and sought diplomatic recognition from the international community as de jure sovereign states, but have not been universally recognized as such. These entities often have de facto control of their territory, a number of such entities have existed in the past. There are two traditional doctrines that

Stepanakert
–
Stepanakert or Khankendi, originally called Vararakn, is the capital and the largest city of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, recognized as de jure part of Azerbaijan. As of 2015, the population of Stepanakert is 55,200, Stepanakert meaning the city of Stepan is named after the Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary Stepan

Unitary state
–
The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states,165 of them are governed as unitary states, unitary states are contrasted with federal states. In a unitary state, sub-national units are created and abolished, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an example of a unitary stat

1.
Unitary states

Presidential system
–
A presidential system is a system of government where a head of government is also head of state and leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch. The United States, for instance, has a presidential system, the executive is elected and often titled president and is not responsible to the legislature, which cannot in normal

1.
Presidential republics with a full presidential system.

Republic
–
It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval

Bako Sahakyan
–
Bako Sahakyan is the fourth president of the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He was first elected as President on 19 July 2007 and on 19 July 2012 he was re-elected for a second five-year term, Sahakyan replaced Arkadi Ghukasyan, who had held the presidential post for two five-year terms. Sahakyan was born in Stepanakert, NKAO, Azerbaijan SSR i

1.
Bako Sahakyan

Ashot Ghulian
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Ashot Ghulian is the Speaker of the Nagorno-Karabakh legislature. He was born on 19 August 1965 in the Khndzristan village, in 1983, Ghulian attended the Stepanakert Pedagogical Institute for Historical Studies. From 1984 to 1986, he served in the Soviet Army, Ghulian graduated from the faculty of the Department of Vanadzor Pedagogical Institute in

Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started t

Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units e

1.
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order

Purchasing power parity
–
Observed deviations of the exchange rate from purchasing power parity are measured by deviations of the real exchange rate from its PPP value of 1. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of exchange rates. For example, suppose that two countries produce the same amounts of goods as each

List of countries by GDP (PPP)
–
This article includes a list of countries by their gross domestic product, the value of all final goods and services produced within a state in a given year. Countries are sorted by nominal GDP estimates from financial and statistical institutions, the GDP dollar data given on this page are derived from purchasing power parity calculations. It is h

1.
World Share of GDP (PPP) according to data released by the IMF, October 2014

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
–
The gross domestic product per capita figures on this page are derived from PPP calculations. Such calculations are prepared by various organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and this is why GDP per capita is often considered one of the indicators of a countrys standard of living, although this can be problematic because GDP per c

Armenian dram
–
The dram is the monetary unit of Armenia. It is subdivided into 100 luma, the word dram translates into English as money and is cognate with the Greek drachma and the Arabic dirham. The first instance of a currency was in the period from 1199 to 1375. On 21 September 1991, a referendum proclaimed Armenia as an independent republic from the Soviet U

ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code

2.
A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency.

Coordinated Universal Time
–
Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was i

1.
Key concepts

2.
World map of current time zones

Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a

4.
William Willett independently proposed DST in 1907 and advocated it tirelessly.

Right- and left-hand traffic
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This is so fundamental to traffic flow that it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. About two-thirds of the population use RHT, with the remaining 76 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the worlds area, in the early 1900s some countries including Canada, Spain, and Brazil had differe

1.
A sign on Australia 's Great Ocean Road reminding foreign motorists to keep left. Such signs are placed at the exit of parking areas associated with scenic views, where other road traffic may at times be sparse.

2.
Right-hand traffic

3.
One of many road signs in the British county of Kent placed on the right-hand side of the road.

South Caucasus
–
Transcaucasia, or the South Caucasus, is a geopolitical region in the vicinity of the southern Caucasus Mountains on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Transcaucasia roughly corresponds to modern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia together comprise the larger Caucasus geographical region that divides Eurasia

1.
Map of Caucasus region prepared by the U.S. State Department, 1994.

UN
–
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the

1.
1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the United Nations' original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states.

4.
Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.

Azerbaijan
–
Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the

Armenians
–
Armenians are an ethnic group native to the Armenian Highlands. Armenians constitute the population of Armenia and the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. There is a diaspora of around 5 million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside of modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the Unite

4.
About 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the Armenian Genocide in 1915–1918.

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
–
The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast within the borders of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, mostly inhabited by ethnic Armenians. Had Turkey not been an issue, Stalin would probably have left Karabakh under Armenian control, as a result, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was established with the Azerbaijan S

Armenia
–
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Republic of Armenia constitutes only one-tenth of historical Armenia, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced

1.
Reconstruction of Herodotus ' world map c. 450 BC, with Armenia shown in the center

4.
The Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's Mother Church traditionally dated 303 AD, is considered the oldest cathedral in the world.

Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
–
The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the First Republic of Armenia to the west and it had a population of 2.86 million. Ganja was the capital of the Republ

3.
Memorial table on the wall of the hall of the building in Tbilisi, where on May 28, 1918 Azerbaijani National Assembly declared the first independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

First Republic of Armenia
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The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was the first modern Armenian state since the loss of Armenian statehood in the Middle Ages. The republic was established in the Armenian-populated territories of the disintegrated Russian Empire, the leaders of the government came mostly from t

4.
A delegation of five hundred Armenian World War I veterans in Washington, D.C., April 1920

Ottoman Empire
–
After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal sta

History of Nagorno-Karabakh
–
Nagorno-Karabakh is the modern designation for a southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region Karabakh. The final status of the region is still a subject of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and this article encompasses the history of the region from the ancient to the modern

1.
Amaras Monastery, 4th century

2.
Closeup of church inside the complex of Gandzasar monastery, 13th century.

3.
Old portrait of an early 20th-century Armenian family in Karabakh

Azerbaijan SSR
–
Established on 28 April 1920 as the Azerbaijan SSR, from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936, it was part of the Transcausasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR. In December 1922, the Transcaucasian SFSR became part of the newly established Soviet Union, the Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR was approved by the 9th Extraordinary A

Dissolution of the Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26,1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and that evening at 7,32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Previously, from August to Decembe

Shahumian
–
The Shahumyan Region is a disputed region, formerly a district of Azerbaijan SSR outside Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Before the Nagorno-Karabakh War of the 1990s, the district had a substantial Armenian population, the eastern part of the territory remains under the control of Azerbaijan and is incorporated into Goranboy District, but the a

Nagorno-Karabakh War
–
Inter-ethnic clashes between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in Azerbaijan voted to unify the region with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the result of a territorial conflict regarding the land. Full-scale fighting erupted in the winter of 1992. I

Democracy
–
Democracy, in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority, Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were ch

4.
The establishment of universal male suffrage in France in 1848 was an important milestone in the history of democracy.

Unicameralism
–
In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism, many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate

1.
Nations with bicameral legislatures.

Armenian Apostolic Church
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The Armenian Apostolic Church is the national church of the Armenian people. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian communities, Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in the early 4th century. The church claims to have originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and it is s

Armenian diaspora
–
The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside the Republic of Armenia including the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in regions throughout the world. In Armenian, the diaspora is referred to as spyurk, spelled սփիւռք in classical orthography, in the past,

Head of state
–
A head of state is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. In some countries, the head of state is a figurehead with limited or no executive power, while in others. Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France, some academic writers discu

1.
Sixteen heads of state meeting at a UNASUR - BRICS summit in July 2014.

Head of government
–
The term head of government is often differentiated from the term head of state, as they may be separate positions, individuals, and/or roles depending on the country. In parliamentary systems, including constitutional monarchies, the head of government is the de facto leader of the government. For example, in the United Kingdom, the prime minister

Multi-party system
–
First-past-the-post requires concentrated areas of support for large representation in the legislature whereas proportional representation better reflects the range of a populations views. Proportional systems have multi-member districts with more than one elected from a given district to the same legislative body. Duvergers Law states that the num

1.
Indian state governments led by various political parties and coalitions

Freedom House
–
Freedom House is a U. S. -based 501 U. S. Government funded non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt served as its first honorary chairpersons. It describes itself as a voice for democracy and

Politics of Armenia
–
Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, Armenia became independent from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic on 28 May 1918 as the First Republic of Armenia. After the First Republic collapsed on 2 December 1920, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union, the TSFSR

Politics of Azerbaijan
–
Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, the Judiciary is nominally independent of the executive and the legislature. Following a massacre of Azerbaijanis at Khojali in Nagorno-Karabakh in March 1992, Mutalibov resigned, among its reforms, the PFP dissolved

Civil and political rights
–
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure ones ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society, Civil and political rights form the original and main part of international human rights. They comp

1.
Nagorno-Karabakh
–
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mountainous and forested. Azerbaijan has not exercised political authority over the region since the advent of the Karabakh movement in 1988, the region is usually equated with the administrative borders of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast comprising an area of 4,400 square kilometres. The historical area of the region, however, encompasses approximately 8,223 square kilometres, the prefix Nagorno- derives from the Russian attributive adjective nagorny, which means highland. The Azerbaijani names of the include the similar adjectives dağlıq or yuxarı. Such words are not used in the Armenian name, but they have appeared in the name of the region during the Soviet era as Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Other languages apply their own wording for mountainous, upper, or highland, for example, the name Karabakh comprises two words, kara and bagh. Thus Karabakh literally means black garden, the name first appears in Georgian and Persian sources of the 13th and 14th centuries. Karabagh, an alternate spelling of Karabakh, denotes a kind of patterned rug originally produced in the area. Urartian inscriptions use the name Urtekhini for the region, ancient Greek sources called the area Orkhistene. Nagorno-Karabakh falls within the occupied by peoples known to modern archaeologists as the Kura-Araxes culture. The ancient population of the region consisted of various autochthonous local, according to the prevailing western theory, these natives intermarried with Armenians who came to the region after its inclusion into Armenia in the 2nd or, possibly earlier, in 4th century BC. Other scholars suggest that the Armenians settled in the region as early as in the 7th century BC, in around 180 BC, Artsakh became one of the 15 provinces of the Armenian Kingdom and remained so until the 4th century. While formally having the status of a province, Artsakh possibly formed a principality on its own — like Armenias province of Syunik, other theories suggest that Artsakh was a royal land, belonging to the King of Armenia directly. Tigran the Great, King of Armenia, founded in Artsakh one of four cities named Tigranakert after himself, the ruins of the ancient Tigranakert, located 30 miles north-east of Stepanakert, are being studied by a group of international scholars. At the time the population of Artsakh and Utik consisted of Armenians, Armenian culture and civilization flourished in the early medieval Nagorno-Karabakh. St. Mesrop was very active in preaching Gospel in Artsakh, overall, Mesrop Mashtots made three trips to Artsakh and Utik, ultimately reaching pagan territories at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus. The 7th-century Armenian linguist and grammarian Stephanos Syunetsi stated in his work that Armenians of Artsakh had their own dialect, and encouraged his readers to learn it

Nagorno-Karabakh
–
Snow-covered Lesser Caucasus south of the Greater Caucasus. About 1800 the eastern side of the Lesser Caucasus was ruled by the Ganja Khanate in the north and the Karabagh Khanate in the south. The Karabagh Khanate extended east into the lowlands, hence the name Nagorno- or Highland- Karabagh.
Nagorno-Karabakh
–
Location and extent of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (lighter color).
Nagorno-Karabakh
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The Amaras Monastery, founded in the 4th century by St. Gregory the Illuminator. In the 5th century, Mesrop Mashtots, inventor of the Armenian alphabet, established at Amaras the first school to use his script.
Nagorno-Karabakh
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The monastery at Gandzasar was commissioned by the House of Khachen and completed in 1238

2.
Armenian language
–
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. Like Hellenic Greek, it has its own branch in the language tree. It is the language of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It has historically been spoken throughout the Armenian Highlands and today is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. Armenian has its own script, the Armenian alphabet, introduced in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages and it is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological developments within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization, although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups, Armenia was a monolingual country by the 2nd century BC at the latest. Its language has a literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Its vocabulary has been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages, particularly Parthian, and to an extent by Greek, Persian. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, with which most contemporary dialects are mutually intelligible and he is also credited by some with the creation of the Caucasian Albanian alphabet. In The Anabasis, Xenophon describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. W. M. However, unlike shared innovations, the retention of archaisms is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. Some of the terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, loan words from Iranian languages, along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that the similarities between the two meant that Iranian and Armenian were the same language. The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann used the method to distinguish two layers of Iranian loans from the older Armenian vocabulary. Meillets hypothesis became popular in the wake of his Esquisse, eric P. Hamp supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis, anticipating even a time when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian. Nevertheless, as Fortson comments, by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, graeco--Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family, ancestral to the Greek language, the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages. Graeco-Aryan unity would have divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-third millennium BC

3.
List of states with limited recognition
–
A number of polities have declared independence and sought diplomatic recognition from the international community as de jure sovereign states, but have not been universally recognized as such. These entities often have de facto control of their territory, a number of such entities have existed in the past. There are two traditional doctrines that provide indicia of how a de jure sovereign state comes into being, according to declarative theory, an entitys statehood is independent of its recognition by other states. By contrast, the constitutive theory defines a state as a person of international law if it is recognised as such by other states that are already a member of the international community. Proto-states often reference either or both doctrines in order to legitimise their claims to statehood, there are, for example, entities which meet the declarative criteria, but whose statehood is not recognised by any other states. Non-recognition is often a result of conflicts with other countries that claim those entities as integral parts of their territory, in other cases, two or more partially recognised entities may claim the same territorial area, with each of them de facto in control of a portion of it. Entities that are recognised by only a minority of the worlds states usually reference the declarative doctrine to legitimise their claims, the international community can judge this military presence too intrusive, reducing the entity to a puppet state where effective sovereignty is retained by the foreign power. Historical cases in this sense can be seen in Japanese-led Manchukuo or the German-created Slovak Republic and Independent State of Croatia before, in the 1996 case Loizidou vs. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights judged Turkey for having exercised authority in the territory of Northern Cyprus. Historically this has happened in the case of the Holy See, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is currently in this position. See list of governments in exile for unrecognised governments without control over the territory claimed, some states are slow to establish relations with new states and thus do not recognise them, despite having no dispute and sometimes favorable relations. These are excluded from the list, there are 193 United Nations member states. The Holy See and the State of Palestine have observer status in the United Nations. Some states maintain informal relations with states that do not officially recognise them, the Republic of China is one such state, as it maintains unofficial relations with many other states through its Economic and Cultural Offices, which allow regular consular services. This allows the ROC to have economic relations even with states that do not formally recognise it, a total of 56 states, including Germany, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom, maintain some form of unofficial mission in the ROC. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a sovereign entity and is not included. It has established full diplomatic relations with 105 sovereign states as a subject of international law. Five more states maintain neither and do not recognise its passports, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, uncontacted peoples who either live in societies that cannot be defined as states or whose statuses as such are not definitively known. Entities considered to be micronations are not included, even though micronations generally claim to be sovereign and independent, it is often up to debate whether a micronation truly controls its claimed territory

List of states with limited recognition
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Women in Somaliland, wearing the colors of the Somaliland flag.

4.
Stepanakert
–
Stepanakert or Khankendi, originally called Vararakn, is the capital and the largest city of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, recognized as de jure part of Azerbaijan. As of 2015, the population of Stepanakert is 55,200, Stepanakert meaning the city of Stepan is named after the Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary Stepan Shaumian. The name is formed of the words Stepan and kert meaning town, according to medieval Armenian sources, the settlement was first mentioned as Vararakn, a name that remained in use until 1847, when it was renamed Khankendi. Azerbaijani sources generally say that the settlement was founded in the eighteenth century as a private residence for khans of the Karabakh Khanate. The settlement was initially called Khanin Kendi, but then was shortened to Khankendi, after the conquest of the Karabakh Khanate by the Russian Empire the name Khankendi was charted on Russian maps. In time, Stepanakert grew to become the regions most important city and its population rose from 10,459 in 1939 to 33,000 in 1978. Several schools and two polyclinics were established, and an Armenian drama theater was founded in 1932 and named after Maxim Gorky, Stepanakert served as Nagorno-Karabakhs main economic hub, and by the mid-1980s there were nineteen production facilities in the city. The political and economic reforms that General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated in 1985 saw a marked decentralization of Soviet authority, Armenians, in both Armenia proper and Nagorno-Karabakh, viewed Gorbachevs reform program as an opportunity to unite the two together. On February 20,1988, tens of thousands of Armenians gathered to demonstrate in Stepanakerts Lenin Square to demand that the region be joined to Armenia. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to join the Armenian SSR, fighting broke out over control of Nagorno-Karabakh which eventually resulted in Armenian control of the region and a connecting corridor to Armenia to the west. Prior to the conflict, Stepanakert was the largest city of the NKAO, by early 1992, that figure had dropped to 50,000. So destructive was the caused by the incessant bombardment, that a journalist for Time noted in an April 1992 article that scarcely a single building escaped damage in Stepanakert. The Azerbaijani military staged several attacks against the city, which were successfully repulsed by Armenian forces. It was not until May 9,1992, with the capture of Shusha, the city, nevertheless, continued to suffer aerial bombardment for the remainder of the war. There has been an unofficial cease-fire observed since 1994, Stepanakert has a humid subtropical climate according to the Köppen climate classification system and a semi-arid climate according to the Trewartha climate classification system. In the month of January, the temperature drops to 0.5 °C. In August, it averages around 22.6 °C, during the Soviet era, there were no traditional churches in Stepanakert, although most of the population of the city were members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The late-19th-century church of Saint George was destroyed in the 1930s to build the Stepanakert Drama Theatre, currently, the church of Surp Hakob opened in 2007 is the only church of the city

5.
Unitary state
–
The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states,165 of them are governed as unitary states, unitary states are contrasted with federal states. In a unitary state, sub-national units are created and abolished, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an example of a unitary state. Many unitary states have no areas possessing a degree of autonomy, in such countries, sub-national regions cannot decide their own laws. Examples are the Republic of Ireland and the Kingdom of Norway, in federal states, the sub-national governments share powers with the central government as equal actors through a written constitution, to which the consent of both is required to make amendments. This means that the units have a right of existence. The United States of America is an example of a federal state, under the U. S. Constitution, powers are shared between the federal government and the states

Unitary state
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Unitary states

6.
Presidential system
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A presidential system is a system of government where a head of government is also head of state and leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch. The United States, for instance, has a presidential system, the executive is elected and often titled president and is not responsible to the legislature, which cannot in normal circumstances dismiss it. Presidential systems are numerous, but the following are true, The executive can veto legislative acts and, in turn. The veto is generally derived from the British tradition of royal assent in which an act of parliament can only be enacted with the assent of the monarch, the president has a fixed term of office. Members of the cabinet serve at the pleasure of the president, cabinet ministers or executive departmental chiefs are not members of the legislature. However, presidential systems often need legislative approval of executive nominations to the cabinet, judiciary, a president generally can direct members of the cabinet, military, or any officer or employee of the executive branch, but cannot direct or dismiss judges. The president can often pardon or commute sentences of convicted criminals, countries that feature a presidential system of government are not the exclusive users of the title of president. For example, a dictator, who may or may not have been popularly or legitimately elected may be, likewise, leaders of one-party states are often called presidents. Most parliamentary republics have presidents, but this position is ceremonial, notable examples include Germany, India, Ireland, Israel. The title is used in parliamentary republics with an executive presidency. In a full-fledged presidential system, a president is chosen directly by the people or indirectly by the party to be the head of the executive branch. Presidential governments make no distinction between the positions of head of state and head of government, both of which are held by the president, a few countries have powerful presidents who are elected by the legislature. These executives are titled president, whereas in practice they are similar to prime ministers, other countries with the same system include Botswana, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Suriname. By contrast, national presidents are figurehead heads of state, like constitutional monarchs, such symbolic presidents can be directly elected by the people or indirectly by a legislative vote. Only a few nations, such as Ireland, have a popularly elected ceremonial president, subnational governments, usually states, may be structured as presidential systems. All of the governments in the United States use the presidential system. On a local level, many cities use Council-manager government, which is equivalent to a parliamentary system, some countries without a presidential system at the national level use a form of this system at a subnational or local level. Supporters generally claim four basic advantages for presidential systems, Direct elections — in a presidential system and this makes the presidents power more legitimate than that of a leader appointed indirectly

Presidential system
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Presidential republics with a full presidential system.

7.
Republic
–
It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as humanism, is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect, Republics became more common in the Western world starting in the late 18th century, eventually displacing absolute monarchy as the most common form of government in Europe. In modern republics, the executive is legitimized both by a constitution and by popular suffrage, for instance, Article IV of the United States Constitution guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government. The term originates as the Latin translation of Greek word politeia, cicero, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as republic. The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime, and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the modern word republic is. And also amongst classical Latin, the term republic can be used in a way to refer to any regime. In medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments, in the late Middle Ages, writers, such as Giovanni Villani, began writing about the nature of these states and the differences from other types of regime. They used terms such as libertas populi, a free people, the terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states writers, most importantly Leonardo Bruni, adopted the Latin phrase res publica. While Bruni and Machiavelli used the term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term can quite literally be translated as public matter. It was most often used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, in subsequent centuries, the English word commonwealth came to be used as a translation of res publica, and its use in English was comparable to how the Romans used the term res publica. Notably, during The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell the word commonwealth was the most common term to call the new monarchless state, likewise, in Polish, the term was translated as rzeczpospolita, although the translation is now only used with respect to Poland. Presently, the term republic commonly means a system of government which derives its power from the rather than from another basis. After the classical period, during the Middle Ages, many cities developed again. The modern type of itself is different from any type of state found in the classical world. Nevertheless, there are a number of states of the era that are today still called republics

8.
Bako Sahakyan
–
Bako Sahakyan is the fourth president of the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He was first elected as President on 19 July 2007 and on 19 July 2012 he was re-elected for a second five-year term, Sahakyan replaced Arkadi Ghukasyan, who had held the presidential post for two five-year terms. Sahakyan was born in Stepanakert, NKAO, Azerbaijan SSR in 1960, after serving in the Soviet army, he worked for nine years in a Stepanakert factory. In 1990, he joined the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, of which he became a deputy commander, in 1999, he was named interior minister of Nagorno-Karabakh. He also led the Nagorno-Karabakh security service from 2001 to June 2007, bako Sahakyan ran as an independent and won the elections with 85 percent of the votes. Voters mainly turned to Sahakyan because of his record in the security services, bako Sahakyan is married and has two children. Sahakyan visited the village of Vank to participate in a ceremony of a new building of a local hospital built with financial assistance of philanthropist Levon Hayrapetyan. President of Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh Arkadi Ghukasyan Official website of the President of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic High turnout in Nagorno-Karabakh

Bako Sahakyan
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Bako Sahakyan

9.
Ashot Ghulian
–
Ashot Ghulian is the Speaker of the Nagorno-Karabakh legislature. He was born on 19 August 1965 in the Khndzristan village, in 1983, Ghulian attended the Stepanakert Pedagogical Institute for Historical Studies. From 1984 to 1986, he served in the Soviet Army, Ghulian graduated from the faculty of the Department of Vanadzor Pedagogical Institute in Stepanakert in 1990. He taught at the Khndzristan high school and participated in village self-defense forces from 1991 to 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, on 1 December 1992, Ghulian joined the convocation of the Supreme Council for Foreign Relations Committee, becoming a senior adviser in 1993. In September, he became the Assistant of the Supreme Council to the President and he led the bilateral relations section of the Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry beginning in January 1995, and the political administration beginning in January 1998. Ghulian was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs on 15 December 1998 and he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in June 2001, and the Democratic Party of Artsakh elected him chair of the social and political organization. On October 2002, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ghulian was elected president of the Central Council of the Democratic Party of Artsakh in January 2005. At the first plenary session of the National Assembly on 30 June 2005, the Artsakh Democratic Party represented by him came in second at the Nagorno-Karabakh parliamentary election,2010, behind the Free Motherland party. Ghulian has made visits to the United States to lobby for support. He has been awarded the Order of St. Gregory the Illuminator

Ashot Ghulian
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Ashot Ghulian Աշոտ Ղուլյան

10.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

11.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices

12.
Purchasing power parity
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Observed deviations of the exchange rate from purchasing power parity are measured by deviations of the real exchange rate from its PPP value of 1. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of exchange rates. For example, suppose that two countries produce the same amounts of goods as each other in each of two different years. But if one countrys GDP is converted into the countrys currency using PPP exchange rates instead of observed market exchange rates. The idea originated with the School of Salamanca in the 16th century, the best-known purchasing power adjustment is the Geary–Khamis dollar. The real exchange rate is equal to the nominal exchange rate. If purchasing power parity held exactly, then the exchange rate would always equal one. However, in practice the exchange rates exhibit both short run and long run deviations from this value, for example due to reasons illuminated in the Balassa–Samuelson theorem. There can be marked differences between purchasing power adjusted incomes and those converted via market exchange rates. This discrepancy has large implications, for instance, when converted via the exchange rates GDP per capita in India is about US$1,965 while on a PPP basis it is about US$7,197. At the other extreme, Denmarks nominal GDP per capita is around US$62,100, the purchasing power parity exchange rate serves two main functions. PPP exchange rates can be useful for making comparisons between countries because they stay fairly constant from day to day or week to week and only change modestly, if at all, from year to year. The PPP exchange-rate calculation is controversial because of the difficulties of finding comparable baskets of goods to compare purchasing power across countries, people in different countries typically consume different baskets of goods. It is necessary to compare the cost of baskets of goods and this is a difficult task because purchasing patterns and even the goods available to purchase differ across countries. Thus, it is necessary to make adjustments for differences in the quality of goods, furthermore, the basket of goods representative of one economy will vary from that of another, Americans eat more bread, Chinese more rice. Hence a PPP calculated using the US consumption as a base will differ from that calculated using China as a base, additional statistical difficulties arise with multilateral comparisons when more than two countries are to be compared. Various ways of averaging bilateral PPPs can provide a stable multilateral comparison. These are all issues of indexing, as with other price indices there is no way to reduce complexity to a single number that is equally satisfying for all purposes

13.
List of countries by GDP (PPP)
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This article includes a list of countries by their gross domestic product, the value of all final goods and services produced within a state in a given year. Countries are sorted by nominal GDP estimates from financial and statistical institutions, the GDP dollar data given on this page are derived from purchasing power parity calculations. It is however limited when measuring financial flows between countries, PPP is often used to gauge global poverty thresholds and is used by the United Nations in constructing the human development index. These surveys such as the International Comparison Program include both tradable and non-tradable goods in an attempt to estimate a representative basket of all goods. The first table includes estimates for the year 2016, for all current 187 International Monetary Fund members, as well as Hong Kong, data are in millions of international dollars and were calculated by the IMF. Figures were published in April 2015, the second table includes data mostly for the year 2015 for 180 of the 193 current United Nations member states, as well as the two Chinese Special Administrative Regions. Data are in billions of dollars and were compiled by the World Bank. The third table is a tabulation of the CIA World Factbook Gross Domestic Product data update of 2016, the data for GDP at purchasing power parity have also been rebased using the new International Comparison Program price surveys and extrapolated to 2007. Click on one of the triangles in the headings to re-order the list according to that category. ^a Chinas PPP is based on prices for 11 administrative regions, extrapolated to the country. Chinas entry does not include the two administrative regions, namely Hong Kong and Macau. List of Muslim Countries by GDP Purchasing Power Parity at Materia Islamica

List of countries by GDP (PPP)
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World Share of GDP (PPP) according to data released by the IMF, October 2014

14.
List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
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The gross domestic product per capita figures on this page are derived from PPP calculations. Such calculations are prepared by various organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and this is why GDP per capita is often considered one of the indicators of a countrys standard of living, although this can be problematic because GDP per capita is not a measure of personal income. Several economies which are not considered to be sovereign states are included in the list because they appear in the sources and these economies are not ranked in the following tables, but are listed in sequence for comparison. Non-sovereign entities, former countries or other groupings are marked in italics. All figures are in current Geary–Khamis dollars, more known as international dollars

List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita

15.
Armenian dram
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The dram is the monetary unit of Armenia. It is subdivided into 100 luma, the word dram translates into English as money and is cognate with the Greek drachma and the Arabic dirham. The first instance of a currency was in the period from 1199 to 1375. On 21 September 1991, a referendum proclaimed Armenia as an independent republic from the Soviet Union. The Central Bank of Armenia, established on 27 March 1993, was given the right of issuing the national currency. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union attempts were made to maintain a common currency among CIS states, however it soon became clear that maintaining a currency union in the unstable political and economical circumstances of the post-Soviet states would be very difficult. The rublezone effectively collapsed with the monetary reform in Russia,1993. As result the states that were still participating were pushed out, Armenia was one of the last countries to do so when it introduced the dram on 22 November 1993. In 1995 the currency sign for the Armenian dram was designed. The Armenian dram sign is the sign of the Armenian dram. In Unicode, it is encoded at U+058F ֏ ARMENIAN DRAM SIGN, after its proclamation of independence, Armenia put into circulation its own national currency – Armenian Dram, the usage of which revealed the necessity for a monetary sign. As the result of business practice and the unique pattern of Armenian letters the shape of the sign. Since that time and until the endorsement of the sign a number of artists. Now the Sign is present in the Armenian standard for the characters and symbols. The Armenian dram is also used in the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a separate currency, the Nagorno-Karabakh dram, which circulates together with the Armenian dram was introduced during 2005. Coins and banknotes ranging in nominal values from 50 luma to 10 dram were issued, officially the Nagorno-Karabakh dram is legal tender in both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. In practice it is mostly sold as souvenirs due to the low nominal values of the coins. In 1994, a first series of coins was introduced in denominations of 10,20 and 50 luma,1,3,5 and 10 dram. In 2003 and 2004, a series consisting of 10,20,50,100,200 and 500 dram coins was introduced to replace the first series

16.
ISO 4217
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The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency

ISO 4217
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An airline ticket showing the price in the ISO 4217 code " EUR " (bottom left) and not the currency sign€
ISO 4217
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A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency.

17.
Coordinated Universal Time
–
Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead

Coordinated Universal Time
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Key concepts
Coordinated Universal Time
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World map of current time zones

18.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year

19.
Right- and left-hand traffic
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This is so fundamental to traffic flow that it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. About two-thirds of the population use RHT, with the remaining 76 countries and territories using LHT. Countries that use LHT account for about a sixth of the worlds area, in the early 1900s some countries including Canada, Spain, and Brazil had different rules in different parts of the country. During the 1900s many countries standardised within their jurisdictions, and changed from LHT to RHT, in 1919,104 of the worlds territories were LHT and an equal number were RHT. From 1919 to 1986,34 of the LHT territories switched to RHT, many of the countries with LHT are former British colonies in the Caribbean, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Mozambique, Suriname, East Timor, in Europe, only four countries still drive on the left, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, all of which are islands. Nearly all countries use one side or the other throughout their entire territory, most exceptions are due to historical considerations and involve islands with no road connection to the main part of a country. China is RHT except the Special Administrative Regions of China of Hong Kong, the United States is RHT except the United States Virgin Islands. The United Kingdom is LHT, but its overseas territories of Gibraltar, according to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, water traffic is RHT. For aircraft the US Federal Aviation Regulations provide for passing on the right, light rail vehicles generally operate on the same side as other road traffic in the country. Many countries use RHT for automobiles but LHT for trains, often because of the influence of the British on early railway systems, in some countries rail traffic remained LHT after automobile traffic switched to RHT, for example in China, Brazil, and Argentina. However, France, Belgium, and Switzerland have used RHT for automobiles since their introduction, there is no technical reason to prefer one side over the other. Ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman troops kept to the left when marching, in 1998, archaeologists found a well-preserved double track leading to a Roman quarry near Swindon. The first reference in English law to an order for LHT was in 1756, northcote Parkinson, believed that ancient travellers on horseback or on foot generally kept to the left, since most people were right handed. If two men riding on horseback were to start a fight, each would edge toward the left, in the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII directed pilgrims to keep left. In the late 1700s, traffic in the United States was RHT based on use of large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons had no seat, so a postilion sat on the left rear horse. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the wheels of oncoming wagons, in France, traditionally foot traffic had kept right, while carriage traffic kept left

Right- and left-hand traffic
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A sign on Australia 's Great Ocean Road reminding foreign motorists to keep left. Such signs are placed at the exit of parking areas associated with scenic views, where other road traffic may at times be sparse.
Right- and left-hand traffic
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Right-hand traffic
Right- and left-hand traffic
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One of many road signs in the British county of Kent placed on the right-hand side of the road.
Right- and left-hand traffic
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The change of traffic directions at the Laos–Thai border takes place on Lao territory just off the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge.

20.
South Caucasus
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Transcaucasia, or the South Caucasus, is a geopolitical region in the vicinity of the southern Caucasus Mountains on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Transcaucasia roughly corresponds to modern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia together comprise the larger Caucasus geographical region that divides Eurasia. All of present-day Armenia is in Transcaucasia, the majority of present-day Georgia and Azerbaijan, including the exclave of Nakhchivan, parts of Iran and Turkey are also included within the region of Transcaucasia. Goods produced in the region include oil, manganese ore, tea, citrus fruits and it remains one of the most politically tense regions in the post-Soviet area, and contains three heavily disputed areas, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Between 1878 and 1917 the Russian controlled province of Kars Oblast was also incorporated into the Transcaucasus, Transcaucasia is a Latin rendering of the Russian-language word zakavkazie, meaning the area beyond the Caucasus Mountains. This implies a Russian vantage point, and is analogous to similar terms such as Transnistria and Transleithania, other forms of this word include Trans-Caucasus and Transcaucasus. The region is referred to as Southern Caucasia and the South Caucasus. Located on the peripheries of Turkey, Iran and Russia, the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, throughout history, Transcaucasia was usually under the direct rule of the various in-Iran based empires and part of the Iranian world. In the course of the 19th century, Qajar Iran had to cede the region as a result of the two Russo-Persian Wars of that century to Imperial Russia. Ancient kingdoms of the region included Armenia, Albania and Iberia, later, the Orthodox Christian Kingdom of Georgia dominated most of Transcaucasia. The region was conquered by the Seljuk, Mongol, Turkic, Safavid, Ottoman, Afsharid. The 1826-1828 conquerings were confirmed in the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, in 1801, what is now Georgia was formally incorporated into the Russian Empire. After 1828-1829 war, Ottomans ceded Western Georgia except Adjaria, which was known as Sanjak of Batum, finally after Russo-Turkish War, Russians completed conquest of Transcaucasus. In 1844, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were combined into a single czarist government-general, Transcaucasia, in particular where modern-day Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Iran are located, is one of the native areas of the wine-producing vine Vitis vinifera. Some experts speculate that Transcaucasia may be the birthplace of wine production, archaeological excavations and carbon dating of grape seeds from the area have dated back to 7000–5000 BC. Wine found in Iran has been dated to c. 7400 BC and c. 5000 BC, the earliest winery, dated to c. 4000 BC, was found in Armenia

South Caucasus
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Map of Caucasus region prepared by the U.S. State Department, 1994.

21.
UN
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General

UN
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1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the United Nations' original three branches: The Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states.
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The Chilean delegation signing the UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945
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Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.

22.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire

23.
Armenians
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Armenians are an ethnic group native to the Armenian Highlands. Armenians constitute the population of Armenia and the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. There is a diaspora of around 5 million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside of modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia, the United States, France, Georgia, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Lebanon, Brazil and Syria. With the exceptions of Iran and the former Soviet states, the present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian Genocide, most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church, a non-Chalcedonian church, which is also the worlds oldest national church. Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus death, due to the efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew, in the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, historically, the name Armenian has come to internationally designate this group of people. It was first used by neighbouring countries of ancient Armenia, the earliest attestations of the exonym Armenia date around the 6th century BC. In his trilingual Behistun Inscription dated to 517 BC, Darius I the Great of Persia refers to Urashtu as Armina (in Old Persian, Armina and Harminuya. In Greek, Αρμένιοι Armenians is attested from about the same time, xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. He relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians and it is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. Movses Khorenatsi, the important early medieval Armenian historian, wrote that the word Armenian originated from the name Armenak or Aram, the Armenian Highland lies in the highlands surrounding Mount Ararat, the highest peak of the region. In the Bronze Age, several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire, Mitanni, soon after Hayasa-Azzi were Arme-Shupria, the Nairi and the Kingdom of Urartu, who successively established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highland. Each of the nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains, yerevan, the modern capital of Armenia, was founded in 782 BC by king Argishti I. T. Gamkrelidze and V. Ivanov proposed the Indo-European homeland around the Armenian Highland, eric P. Hamp in his 2012 Indo-European family tree, groups the Armenian language along with Greek and Ancient Macedonian in the Pontic Indo-European subgroup. In Hamps view the homeland of this subgroup is the northeast coast of the Black Sea and he assumes that they migrated from there southeast through the Caucasus with the Armenians remaining after Batumi while the pre-Greeks proceeded westwards along the southern coast of the Black Sea. However, fresh genetics studies explain Armenian diversity by several mixtures of Eurasian populations that occurred between ~3,000 and ~2,000 b. c

24.
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast
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The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast within the borders of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, mostly inhabited by ethnic Armenians. Had Turkey not been an issue, Stalin would probably have left Karabakh under Armenian control, as a result, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was established with the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic on July 7,1923. According to Karl R. DeRouen it was created as an enclave so that a strip of land would separate it from Armenia proper. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan SSR of the Soviet Union broke out in 1987, on November 26,1991, the Parliament of the Azerbaijan SSR abolished the autonomous status of the NKAO. Most of the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast is under the control of the ethnic Armenian forces of Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the NKAO was dissolved as an entity of Azerbaijan by the Law on Abolishment of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Mardakert District Martuni District Shusha District Askeran District Hadrut District First Secretary of the Nagorno–Karabakh Communist Party Former Soviet Union Carnage in Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast

25.
Armenia
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Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Republic of Armenia constitutes only one-tenth of historical Armenia, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia, in the 1st century BC the Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great. Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in between the late 3rd century to early years of the 4th century, the state became the first Christian nation. The official date of adoption of Christianity is 301 AD. The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century, under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the fell in 1045. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, during World War I, Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian Genocide. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, in 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the worlds oldest national church, as the countrys primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD, Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia supports the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was proclaimed in 1991, the native Armenian name for the country is Հայք. The name in the Middle Ages was extended to Հայաստան, by addition of the Persian suffix -stan, the further origin of the name is uncertain. It is also postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. The exonym Armenia is attested in the Old Persian Behistun Inscription as Armina, the ancient Greek terms Ἀρμενία and Ἀρμένιοι are first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus. Xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. According to the histories of both Moses of Chorene and Michael Chamchian, Armenia derives from the name of Aram, a descendant of Hayk

Armenia
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Reconstruction of Herodotus ' world map c. 450 BC, with Armenia shown in the center
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The Armenian pagan Temple of Garni, probably built 1st century AD, is the only "Greco-Roman colonnaded building" in Armenia and the entire former Soviet Union.
Armenia
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The Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia's Mother Church traditionally dated 303 AD, is considered the oldest cathedral in the world.

26.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably

27.
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
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The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the First Republic of Armenia to the west and it had a population of 2.86 million. Ganja was the capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister, besides the Musavat majority, Ahrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social Democrats as well as representatives of Armenian, Russian, Polish, Jewish and German minorities gained seats in the parliament. Some members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas, another important accomplishment of the ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan. It was a region of the Russian Empire, where 3 independent states were born later, Armenia, Georgia. The population of the latter was in major part Muslims and that is why it is referred to as Muslim territory when talking about this period of history. After the February revolution of 1917 in Russia on March 22,1917, the members of Ozakom were the members of the State Council and representatives of the Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijan political elite. Ozakom announced that in the months the most important issues, i. e. national, religious, agrarian. In the course of April and May 1917 several Muslim Assemblies took place, like many ethnic minorities of Transcaucasia, Azeris aimed at secession from Russia after the February Revolution. Two general opinions were expressed by the representatives of the Muslim community, pan-Turkish, meaning joining with Turkey, the Transcaucasian region got an opportunity to decide its destiny, taking the course of federalization. After the October revolution of 1917 the Transcaucaisan government had to change its policy as Russia was now involved in the Civil War, the Transcaucausians did not accept the Bolshevik revolution. In February,1918 the Transcaucasian Council started its work in Tbilisi, the “Sejm” consisted of 125 deputies and represented 3 leading parties, Georgian mensheviks, Azerbaijan Muslims and Armenian “dashnaks”. Bolsheviks refused to join the Sejm and established their own government of the local Soviet in Baku, the Commune was formed by 85 Social Revolutionaries and Left Social Revolutionaries,48 Bolsheviks,36 Dashnaks,18 Musavatists and 13 Mensheviks. Stepan Shaumyan, a Bolshevik, and Prokopius Dzhaparidze, a leftist SR, were elected Chairmen of the Council of Peoples Commissioners of the Commune of Baku, the Russian Caucasus Army was degrading after the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Russian forces were substituted by new Armenian bodies, which were not prepared to the war, given the circumstances, the Transcaucasian Sejm signed the Armistice of Erzincan with the Ottoman Empire on December 5,1917. On March 3,1918 the Bolshevik government in Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany, one of the terms was the loss of the regions of Cars, Batumi and Ardagan to the Ottoman Empire. The terms of the Treaty revealed a conflict between Georgians and Armenians on one side and the Muslims on another

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
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A founder and Speaker of the Republic, Mammad Amin Rasulzade is widely regarded as the national leader of Azerbaijan
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Memorial table on the wall of the hall of the building in Tbilisi, where on May 28, 1918 Azerbaijani National Assembly declared the first independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic

28.
First Republic of Armenia
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The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was the first modern Armenian state since the loss of Armenian statehood in the Middle Ages. The republic was established in the Armenian-populated territories of the disintegrated Russian Empire, the leaders of the government came mostly from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The First Republic of Armenia bordered the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north, the Ottoman Empire to the west, Persia to the south, and it had a total land area of roughly 70,000 km², and a population of 1.3 million. The Armenian National Council declared the independence of Armenia on 28 May 1918, from the very onset, Armenia was plagued with a variety of domestic and foreign problems. A humanitarian crisis emerged from the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide as tens of thousands of Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire settled there, the republic lasted for over two years, during which time it was involved in several armed conflicts caused by territorial disputes. By late 1920, the nation was conquered by the Soviet Red Army, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the republic regained its independence as the current Republic of Armenia in 1991. With the help of several battalions of Armenians recruited from the Russian Empire, the Russians continued to make considerable advances even after the toppling of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. In March 1917, the revolution that toppled Tsar Nicholas. Shortly after, the Provisional Government replaced Grand Duke Nicholas administration in the Caucasus with the five-member Special Transcaucasian Committee, the Ozakom included Armenian Democrat Mikayel Papadjanian, and was set to heal wounds inflicted by the old regime. In doing so, Western Armenia was to have a general commissar and was to be subdivided into the districts of Trebizond, Erzerum, Bitlis, and Van. The decree was a concession to the Armenians, Western Armenia was placed under the central government. Dr. Hakob Zavriev would serve as the assistant for civil affairs, in October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government and announced that they would be withdrawing troops from both the Western and Caucasus fronts. The Armenians, Georgians, and Muslims of the Caucasus all rejected the Bolsheviks legitimacy, on December 5,1917, the armistice of Erzincan was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Transcaucasian Commissariat, ending armed conflict. After the Bolshevik seizure of power, a congress of Transcaucasian representatives met to create a provisional regional executive body known as the Transcaucasian Seim. The Commissariat and the Seim were heavily encumbered by the pretense that the South Caucasus formed a unit of a non-existent Russian democracy. The Armenian deputies in the Seim were hopeful that the forces in Russia would prevail in the Russian Civil War. In February 1918, the Armenians, Georgians and Muslims had reluctantly joined to form the Transcaucasian Federation, on March 3,1918, Russian followed the armistice of Erzincan with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and left the war. It ceded territory From March 14 to April 1918, when a conference was held between the Ottoman Empire and the delegation of the Seim

First Republic of Armenia
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The Government building in Yerevan
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Armenian population values (1921).
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A delegation of five hundred Armenian World War I veterans in Washington, D.C., April 1920

29.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe

30.
History of Nagorno-Karabakh
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Nagorno-Karabakh is the modern designation for a southern part of the Lesser Caucasus range, encompassing the highland part of the wider geographical region Karabakh. The final status of the region is still a subject of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and this article encompasses the history of the region from the ancient to the modern period. The region of Nagorno-Karabakh was occupied by the known to modern archaeologists as the Kura-Araxes. Little is known about the ancient history of the region, primarily because of the scarcity of historical sources, jewelry has been found within the present confines of Nagorno-Karabakh inscribed with the cuneiform name of Adad-Nirari, King of Assyria. According to the traditions held by many people in the area. According to a 5th-century AD Armenian tradition, a chieftain named Aran was appointed by the Armenian King Vologases I to be the first governor of this province. For the first time the territory of modern Nagorno Karabakh is mentioned in inscriptions of Sardur II, King of Urartu, found in village Tsovk in Armenia, then—in our data—a breakdown to the Roman epoch. A following mention—already at Strabo which characterizes Orkhistena as the area of Armenia exposing the greatest number of horsemen and it is unclear when Orkhistena became part of Armenia. Ruins of the city Tigranakert are near the city of Agdam. It is one of four cities with such a name that were built in the beginning of 1 BC by king of Armenia Tigranes the Great, recently Armenian archaeologists have led excavation of this city. Fragments of a fortress, and also hundreds the ancient subjects similar to subjects, fencing of a citadel and basilica of 5th–6th centuries AD have been revealed. Excavation have shown, that the city existed since 1st century BC until 13th or 14th century AD, ancient inhabitants of Artsakh spoke a special dialect of the Armenian language, we know about this from the author of the Armenian grammar Stepanos Siunetsi who lived in around 700AD. Strabo and authors of the 1st and 2nd centuries—Claudius Ptolemaeus and Pliny the Elder—unanimously approve, authoritative encyclopedias on antiquity also name Kura southern border of Albania. Artsakh is much to the south of this river, certificates which would approve its accessory Caucasus Albania or to other state up to the end of the 4th century, does not exist. In 372 Mushegh defeated the Caucasus Albanians, took from them Utik, however Anania writes, that during its time Atrsakh together with the next districts will tear away from Armenia. And it is valid, in 387 Armenia has been divided between Roman Empire and Persia, thus Artsakh together with Armenian provinces Utik and Paytakaran was attached to Caucasian Albania, in 469 the kingdom of Albania was reformed into a Sassanid Persian marzpanate. In the early 4th century Christianity spread in Artsakh, in the 5th century the eastern part of Armenia, including Artsakh, remained under Persian rule. In 451 the Armenians in response to the policy of compulsion of their Zoroastrian Persian overlords organized a revolt known as the Vardan war

History of Nagorno-Karabakh
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Amaras Monastery, 4th century
History of Nagorno-Karabakh
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Closeup of church inside the complex of Gandzasar monastery, 13th century.
History of Nagorno-Karabakh
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Old portrait of an early 20th-century Armenian family in Karabakh

31.
Azerbaijan SSR
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Established on 28 April 1920 as the Azerbaijan SSR, from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936, it was part of the Transcausasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR. In December 1922, the Transcaucasian SFSR became part of the newly established Soviet Union, the Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR was approved by the 9th Extraordinary All-Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets on 14 March 1937. On 19 November 1990, Azerbaijan SSR was renamed the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR ceased to exist in 1995, upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Azerbaijan. The name Azerbaijan originates as the Land of Atropates, an Achaemenid then Hellenistic-era king over a region in present-day Iranian Azarbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, despite this difference, the present name was chosen by the Musavat to replace the Russian names Transcaucasia and Baku in 1918. Azerbaijan derives from Persian Āzarbāydjān, from earlier Ādharbāyagān and Ādharbādhagān, from Middle Persian Āturpātākān, from its founding it was officially known as the Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic. Upon independence, it was renamed to the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1991, the current official name was retained after the new Constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted in 1995. On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the previously independent Naxicivan SSR would also become an autonomous ASSR within Azerbaijan by the Treaty of Kars. Borders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, like elsewhere in the USSR, were several times. On 12 March 1922 the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenian, and this was the first attempt at a union of Soviet republics, preceding the USSR. The Union Council of TSFSR consisted of the representatives of the three republics – Nariman Narimanov, Polikarp Mdivani, and Aleksandr Fyodorovich Miasnikyan, the First Secretary of the Transcaucasian Communist Party was Sergo Ordzhonikidze. In December 1922 TSFSR agreed to join the union with Russia, Ukraine, the TSFSR, however, did not last long. In December 1936, the Transcaucasian Union was finally dismantled when the leaders in the Union Council found themselves unable to come to agreement over several issues, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia then became union Republics of the Soviet Union directly. In the spring of 1921, a general change-over from revkoms, in order to help the Azerbaijani oil industry the Supreme Council of the National Economy decided in the same year to provide it with everything necessary out of turn. The new oilfields, like Ilyich Bay, Qara-Chukhur, Lok-Batan, in 1929 a great kolkhoz movement had developed and Azerbaijan became the second Soviet tea producer after the Georgian SSR for the first time. On 31 March 1931 the oil industry of the Azerbaijan SSR, the republic gained the second Order on 15 March 1935 during the observation of its 15th anniversary. At the end of the second five-year plan Azerbaijan appeared at 3rd place in the Soviet Union by its capital investment size, in 1938, the Azerbaijani alphabet was changed from Latin to Cyrillic alphabet. During the period 17 September 1939 to 21 June 1941, the Soviet Union was Nazi Germanys most important ally, in April,1940, intelligence flights by the British and French Air Forces passed over the Absheron Peninsula. Great Britain and France seriously considered the possibility of bombing the Republics oil fields and this changed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941

32.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26,1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and that evening at 7,32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, the week before the unions formal dissolution,11 republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR also signalled the end of the Cold War, some have joined NATO and the European Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11,1985, Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, the reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On April 23,1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the power ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and this liberalisation, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. Under Gorbachevs leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, in May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachevs plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, however, Gorbachev soon faced the same adverse economic reaction to his prohibition as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev. Alcohol production migrated to the market, or through moonshining as some made bathtub vodka with homegrown potatoes. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms. The latter, disparaged as Mr Nyet in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs, gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, as he was considered an old thinker. In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger, at the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23,1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin, Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. The CTAG Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers, Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss and its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords

Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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Tanks at Red Square during the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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Mikhail Gorbachev (1987 photo)
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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Figure of Liberty on the Freedom Monument in Riga, focus of 1986 Latvian demonstrations.
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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The Dawn of Liberty monument in Almaty (Alma-Ata).

33.
Shahumian
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The Shahumyan Region is a disputed region, formerly a district of Azerbaijan SSR outside Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. Before the Nagorno-Karabakh War of the 1990s, the district had a substantial Armenian population, the eastern part of the territory remains under the control of Azerbaijan and is incorporated into Goranboy District, but the area is claimed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Shahumian Region has 16 communities of which 1 is considered urban and 16 are rural, during Soviet times in the area was renamed after the Armenian Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan, its administrative center taking the same name. Approximately 17,000 Armenians living in Shahumians twenty-three villages were deported out of the region, in December 1991 with the Soviet Union imploding, Shahumian was claimed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and became the focus for considerable fighting. This reached a climax in summer 1992 when most of the area was retaken by the Azerbaijan army, damage was severe and the Armenian population fled. The historical name of the town of Shahumian was abolished and renamed to Aşağı Ağcakənd in 1992 and it has been partly re-populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis, some of which are refugees. During Operation Ring, Soviet forces acting in conjunction with the local Azerbaijani OMON forcibly deported Armenians living in the villages of the region of Shahumyan, the operation involved the use of ground troops, military, armored vehicles and artillery. The deportations of the Armenian civilians were carried out with gross human rights violations documented by human rights organizations. Armeniapedia - Rediscovering Armenia - Nagorno-Karabakh

34.
Nagorno-Karabakh War
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Inter-ethnic clashes between the two broke out shortly after the parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in Azerbaijan voted to unify the region with Armenia on 20 February 1988. The declaration of secession from Azerbaijan was the result of a territorial conflict regarding the land. Full-scale fighting erupted in the winter of 1992. International mediation by several including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe failed to bring an end resolution that both sides could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself, a Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994, but regular peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group have failed to result in a peace treaty. As many as 230,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan and 800,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia, the territorial ownership of Nagorno-Karabakh today is still heavily contested between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The current conflict has its roots in events following World War I, shortly before the Ottoman Empires capitulation in the war, the Russian Empire collapsed in November 1917 and fell under the control of the Bolsheviks. Fighting soon broke out between the First Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in three regions, Nakhchevan, Zangezur and Karabakh itself, in Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan quarreled about the boundaries of the three provinces. The Karabakh Armenians attempted to declare their independence but failed to contact with the Republic of Armenia. British troops occupied the South Caucasus in 1919, and the British command suggested Andranik cease his offense, afterward, the British provisionally affirmed Azerbaijani statesman Khosrov bey Sultanov as the governor-general of Karabakh and ordered him to squash any unrest in the region. Afterward followed the Shusha massacre of an estimated 20,000 Armenians, Two months later however, the Soviet 11th Army invaded the Caucasus and within three years, the Caucasian republics were formed into the Transcaucasian SFSR of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks thereafter created a committee, the Caucasus Bureau. Under the supervision of the Peoples Commissar for Nationalities, the future Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast was created in 1923, leaving it with a population that was 94% Armenian. The reversal was substantiated with the connections the region had with Azerbaijan. The capital was moved from Shusha to Khankendi, which was renamed as Stepanakert. Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars have speculated that the decision was an application of the principle of divide and this can be seen, for example, by the odd placement of the Nakhichevan exclave, which is separated by Armenia but is a part of Azerbaijan. Others have also postulated that the decision was a gesture by the Soviet government to help maintain good relations with Atatürks Turkey

Nagorno-Karabakh War
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Clockwise from top: Remnants of Azerbaijani APCs; internally displaced Azerbaijanis from the Armenian-controlled territory; Armenian T-72 tank memorial at the outskirts of Stepanakert; NKR soldiers.
Nagorno-Karabakh War
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Images showing burnt automobiles and marauding rioters on the streets of the industrial city of Sumgait during the pogrom there in February 1988.
Nagorno-Karabakh War
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Internally displaced Azerbaijanis from Nagorno-Karabakh, 1993.

35.
Democracy
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Democracy, in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority, Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the male citizens, rich and poor. The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French, in the 5th century BC, to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens, the term is an antonym to aristocracy, meaning rule of an elite. While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically, the political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In 1906, Finland became the first government to harald a more inclusive democracy at the national level. Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic, oligarchic, and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders, No consensus exists on how to define democracy, but legal equality, political freedom and rule of law have been identified as important characteristics. These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law, other uses of democracy include that of direct democracy. In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom which originated the Westminster system, in the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review, though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are applicable to private organisations. Majority rule is listed as a characteristic of democracy. Hence, democracy allows for political minorities to be oppressed by the tyranny of the majority in the absence of legal protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of a representative democracy is competitive elections that are substantively and procedurally fair, i. e. just. It has also suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. While representative democracy is sometimes equated with the form of government. Many democracies are constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, the term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from demos, common people and kratos, strength, led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC

36.
Unicameralism
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In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism, many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate voices to different sectors of society. Multiple chambers allowed for guaranteed representation of different social classes, ethnic or regional interests, where these factors are unimportant, in unitary states with limited regional autonomy, unicameralism often prevails. Unicameral legislatures are also common in official Communist states such as the Peoples Republic of China, similarly, many formerly Communist states, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia, have retained their unicameral legislatures, though others, such as Romania and Poland, adopted bicameral legislatures. Both the former Russian SFSR and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were bicameral, the two chambers were the Soviet of Nationalities and the Soviet of the Union. The Russian Federation retained bicameralism after the dissolution of the USSR, the principal advantage of a unicameral system is more efficient lawmaking, as the legislative process is much simpler and there is no possibility of deadlock. Proponents of unicameralism have also argued that it costs, even if the number of legislators stay the same, since there are fewer institutions to maintain. There is also the risk that important sectors of society may not be adequately represented, approximately half of the worlds sovereign states are currently unicameral, including both the most populous and the least populous. Many subnational entities have unicameral legislatures, and all of the Brazilian states. In the United Kingdom, the devolved Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Congress of Deputies of Second Spanish Republic was unicameral between 1931 and 1936. Dissolved at the end of Spanish Civil War, the actual Spanish Parliament is bicameral, Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan was unicameral before being replaced in 2005 by the current, bicameral Supreme Assembly. National Assembly of Cameroon was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, chamber of Peoples Representative of Equatorial Guinea was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, bicameral Parliament of Equatorial Guinea. National Assembly of Kenya was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Kenya in 2013. National Assembly of Ivory Coast was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Ivory Coast in 2016. Nebraskas state legislature is also unique in the sense that it is the state legislature that is entirely nonpartisan. In 1999, Governor Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesota Legislature into a unicameral chamber. Although debated, the idea was never adopted, if those constitutional changes had been approved, Puerto Rico could have switched to a unicameral legislature as early as 2015

Unicameralism
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Nations with bicameral legislatures.

37.
Armenian Apostolic Church
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The Armenian Apostolic Church is the national church of the Armenian people. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian communities, Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in the early 4th century. The church claims to have originated in the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and it is sometimes referred to as the Armenian Orthodox Church or Gregorian Church. It is also known as the Armenian Church. The Armenian Church believes apostolic succession through the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, according to legend, the latter of the two apostles is said to have cured Abgar V of Edessa of leprosy with the Image of Edessa, leading to his conversion in 30 AD. After this, Bartholomew came to Armenia, bringing a portrait of the virgin Mary, Bartholomew then converted the sister of Sanatruk, who once again martyred a female relative and the apostle who converted her. Both apostles ordained native bishops before their execution, and some other Armenians had been ordained outside of Armenia by James the Just. According to Eusebius and Tertullian, Armenian Christians were persecuted by kings Axidares, Khosrov I, and Tiridates III, ancient Armenias adoption of Christianity as a state religion has been referred to by Nina Garsoïan as probably the most crucial step in its history. This conversion distinguished it from its Iranian and Mazdean roots and protected it from further Parthian influence, other scholars as well have stated that the acceptance of Christianity by the Arsacid-Armenian rulers was partly in defiance of the Sassanids. When King Trdat IV made Christianity the state religion of Armenia between 301 and 314, it was not a new religion there. It had penetrated the country from at least the third century, Tiridates declared Gregory to be the first Catholicos of the Armenian Church and sent him to Caesarea to be consecrated. Upon his return, Gregory tore down shrines to idols, built churches and monasteries, while meditating in the old capital city of Vagharshapat, Gregory had a vision of Christ descending to the earth and striking it with a hammer. From that spot arose a great Christian temple with a huge cross and he was convinced that God intended him to build the main Armenian church there. With the kings help he did so in accord with his vision and he renamed the city Etchmiadzin, which means the place of the descent of the only-begotten. Initially the Armenian church participated in the church world. Its Catholicos was represented at the First Council of Nicea and the First Council of Constantinople, although unable to attend the Council of Ephesus, the Catholicos Isaac Parthiev sent a message agreeing with its decisions. Christianity was strengthened in Armenia in the 5th century by the translation of the Bible into the Armenian language by the theologian, monk. Before the 5th century, Armenians had a language

Armenian Apostolic Church
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Etchmiadzin Cathedral, the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
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Baptism of Tiridates III.
Armenian Apostolic Church
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Procession of Armenian Priests.

38.
Armenian diaspora
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The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside the Republic of Armenia including the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in regions throughout the world. In Armenian, the diaspora is referred to as spyurk, spelled սփիւռք in classical orthography, in the past, the word gaghut was used mostly to refer to the Armenian communities outside the Armenian homeland. It is borrowed from the Aramaic cognate of Hebrew galut, the Armenian diaspora has been present for over seventeen hundred years. The modern Armenian diaspora was formed largely after World War I as a result of the Armenian Genocide, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk took the region of Western Armenia. As a result of the Armenian Genocide, Armenians were forced to flee to different parts of the world, through marriage and procreation, the number of Armenians in the diaspora who trace their lineage to those Armenians who survived and fled Western Armenia is now several million. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, approximately one million Armenians have joined the diaspora largely as a result of economic conditions in Armenia. Jivan Tabibian, an Armenian scholar and former diplomat in Armenia said, Armenians are not place bound, in the fourth century, Armenian communities already existed outside of Greater Armenia. Diasporic Armenian communities emerged in the Sassanid and Persian empires, in order to populate the less populated areas of Byzantium, Armenians were relocated to those regions. Some Armenians converted to Greek Orthodoxy while retaining Armenian as their language, a growing number of Armenians voluntarily migrated or were compelled to move to Cilicia during the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. After the fall of the kingdom to the Mamelukes and loss of Armenian statehood in 1375, up to 150,000 went to Cyprus, the Balkans, and Italy. Although an Armenian diaspora existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, it grew in size due to emigration from the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Russia, and the Caucasus. The Armenian diaspora is divided into two communities – those from Ottoman Armenia and those who are from the former Soviet Union, the independent Republic of Armenia and Iran. Armenians of the modern Republic of Turkey do not consider themselves as part of the Armenian Diaspora, the Armenian diaspora grew considerably during and after the First World War due to dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Although many Armenians perished during the Armenian Genocide, some of the Armenians managed to escape, the total Armenian population living worldwide is estimated to be 11,000,000. Of those, approximately 3 million live in Armenia,130,000 in the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and 120,000 in the region of Javakhk in neighboring Georgia and this leaves approximately 7,000,000 in diaspora. Less than one third of the worlds Armenian population lives in Armenia, the table below lists countries and territories where at least a few Armenians live, with their number according to official data and estimates by various organizations and media. Estimates may vary greatly, because no data are available for some countries

Armenian diaspora
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Map of the Armenian diaspora

39.
Head of state
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A head of state is the public persona that officially represents the national unity and legitimacy of a sovereign state. In some countries, the head of state is a figurehead with limited or no executive power, while in others. Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France, some academic writers discuss states and governments in terms of models. An independent nation state normally has a head of state, the non-executive model, in which the head of state has either none or very limited executive powers, and mainly has a ceremonial and symbolic role. In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the chief executive officer, heading the executive branch of the state. This accountability and legitimacy requires that someone be chosen who has a majority support in the legislature and it also gives the legislature the right to vote down the head of government and their cabinet, forcing it either to resign or seek a parliamentary dissolution. In parliamentary constitutional monarchies, the legitimacy of the head of state typically derives from the tacit approval of the people via the elected representatives. In reality, numerous variants exist to the position of a head of state within a parliamentary system, usually, the king had the power of declaring war without previous consent of the parliament. For example, under the 1848 constitution of the Kingdom of Italy, the Statuto Albertino—the parliamentary approval to the government appointed by the king—was customary, so, Italy had a de facto parliamentarian system, but a de jure presidential system. These officials are excluded completely from the executive, they do not possess even theoretical executive powers or any role, even formal, hence their states governments are not referred to by the traditional parliamentary model head of state styles of His/Her Majestys Government or His/Her Excellencys Government. Within this general category, variants in terms of powers and functions may exist, the constitution explicitly vests all executive power in the Cabinet, who is chaired by the prime minister and responsible to the Diet. The emperor is defined in the constitution as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people and he is a ceremonial figurehead with no independent discretionary powers related to the governance of Japan. Today, the Speaker of the Riksdag appoints the prime minister, Cabinet members are appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister. In contrast, the contact the President of Ireland has with the Irish government is through a formal briefing session given by the taoiseach to the president. However, he or she has no access to documentation and all access to ministers goes through the Department of the Taoiseach. The president does, however, hold limited reserve powers, such as referring a bill to the court to test its constitutionality. The most extreme non-executive republican Head of State is the President of Israel, semi-presidential systems combine features of presidential and parliamentary systems, notably a requirement that the government be answerable to both the president and the legislature. The constitution of the Fifth French Republic provides for a minister who is chosen by the president

40.
Head of government
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The term head of government is often differentiated from the term head of state, as they may be separate positions, individuals, and/or roles depending on the country. In parliamentary systems, including constitutional monarchies, the head of government is the de facto leader of the government. For example, in the United Kingdom, the prime minister advises the Queen on the appointment of the cabinet, advice she is required to accept. On the other hand, the Queens long service as the head of state enables her to provide the prime minister with information and insight into many matters to better run the government. However, because the United Kingdom is a monarchy, the Prime Minister uses his or her own discretion regarding whether or not to follow the Queens advice. The Queen also is entitled to appoint a new Prime Minister, in presidential republics or in absolute monarchies, the head of state is also usually the head of government. The relationship between that leader and the government, however, can vary greatly, ranging from separation of powers to autocracy, in semi-presidential systems, the head of government may answer to both the head of state and the legislature, with the specifics provided by each countrys constitution. A modern example is the present French government, which originated as the French Fifth Republic in 1958, in France, the president, the head of state, appoints the prime minister, who is the head of government. In some cases, the head of state may represent one political party, in this case, known as cohabitation, the prime minister, along with the cabinet, controls domestic policy, with the presidents influence is largely restricted to foreign affairs. In directorial systems, the executive responsibilities of the head of government are spread among a group of people, a prominent example is the Swiss Federal Council, where each member of the council heads a department and also votes on proposals relating to all departments. A common title for many heads of government is prime minister, various constitutions use different titles, and even the same title can have various multiple meanings, depending on the constitutional order and political system of the state in question. In addition to prime minister, titles used for the democratic model, some of these titles relate to governments below the national level. Have been used by various Empires, Kingdoms and Princely States of India as a title for the Prime Minister, maltese, In Malta, the head of government is Prim Ministru. In this case, the prime minister serves at the pleasure of the monarch, some such titles are diwan, mahamantri, pradhan, wasir or vizier. However, just because the head of state is the de jure dominant position does not mean that he/she will not always be the de facto political leader, in some cases, the head of state is a figurehead whilst the head of the government leads the ruling party. In some cases a head of government may even pass on the title in hereditary fashion, the ability to vote down legislative proposals of the government. Control over or ability to vote down fiscal measures and the budget, all of these requirements directly impact the Head of governments role. Many parliamentary systems require ministers to serve in parliament, while others ban ministers from sitting in parliament, heads of government are typically removed from power in a parliamentary system by Resignation, following, Defeat in a general election

41.
Multi-party system
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First-past-the-post requires concentrated areas of support for large representation in the legislature whereas proportional representation better reflects the range of a populations views. Proportional systems have multi-member districts with more than one elected from a given district to the same legislative body. Duvergers Law states that the number of political parties is one plus the number of seats in a district. In these countries, usually no single party has a majority by itself. Instead, multiple political parties form coalitions for the purpose of developing power blocks for governing, a system where only two parties have the possibility of winning an election is called two-party system. A system where three parties have a realistic possibility of winning an election or forming a coalition is sometimes called a Third-party system. Usually this is because the electoral system penalises the third party, in the 2010 elections, the Liberal Democrats gained 23% of the total vote but won less than 10% of the seats due to the First-Past-The-Post electoral system. Despite this, they still had enough seats to form coalitions with one of the two parties, or to make deals in order to gain their support. An example is the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition formed after the 2010 general election, another is the Lib-Lab pact during Prime Minister James Callaghans Minority Labour Government, when Labour lost its three-seat majority in 1977, the pact fell short of a full coalition. Unlike a one-party system, a multi-party system encourages the general constituency to form distinct, officially recognized groups. Each party competes for votes from the enfranchised constituents, a multi-party system prevents the leadership of a single party from controlling a single legislative chamber without challenge. If the government includes an elected Congress or Parliament, the parties may share power according to proportional representation or the first-past-the-post system, in proportional representation, each party wins a number of seats proportional to the number of votes it receives. In first-past-the-post, the electorate is divided into a number of districts and this gravitation is known as Duvergers law. Proportional representation, on the hand, does not have this tendency. But, recent coalition governments, such as that in the U. K. represent two-party systems rather than multi-party systems and this is regardless of the number of parties in government. A two-party system requires voters to align themselves in large blocs, some theories argue that this allows centrists to gain control. On the other hand, if there are multiple parties, each with less than a majority of the vote. This also promotes centrism, as well as promoting coalition-building skills while discouraging polarization, coalition Polarized pluralism Political organisation Ingroups and outgroups

Multi-party system
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Indian state governments led by various political parties and coalitions

42.
Freedom House
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Freedom House is a U. S. -based 501 U. S. Government funded non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt served as its first honorary chairpersons. It describes itself as a voice for democracy and freedom around the world. The organization was 66–85% funded by grants from the US government from 2006–15, Freedom of the Press and Freedom of the Net, which monitor censorship, intimidation and violence against journalists, and public access to information, are among its other signature reports. Freedom House was incorporated October 31,1941, ford, Roscoe Drummond and Rex Stout. George Field was executive director of the organization until his retirement in 1967, george Field then conceived the idea of all of the groups maintaining their separate identities under one roof—Freedom House—to promote the concrete application of the principles of freedom. Freedom House had physical form in a New York City building that represented the organizations goals, a converted residence at 32 East 51st Street opened January 22,1942, as a centre where all who love liberty may meet, plan their programs and encourage one another. Furnished as a gift of the Allied nations, the 19-room building included a broadcasting facility, Freedom House sponsored influential radio programs including The Voice of Freedom and Our Secret Weapon, a CBS radio series created to counter Axis shortwave radio propaganda broadcasts. Rex Stout, chairman of the Writers War Board and representative of Freedom House, the series was produced by Paul White, founder of CBS News. In 1945 an elegant building at 20 West 40th Street was purchased to house the organization and it was named the Willkie Memorial Building. After the war, as its states, Freedom House took up the struggle against the other twentieth century totalitarian threat. The organizations leadership was convinced that the spread of democracy would be the best weapon against totalitarian ideologies, Freedom House supported the Marshall Plan and the establishment of NATO. Freedom House also supported the Johnson Administrations Vietnam War policies, Freedom House was highly critical of McCarthyism. for their anti-war activism. It supported Andrei Sakharov, other Soviet dissidents, and the Solidarity movement in Poland, Freedom House assisted the post-Communist societies in the establishment of independent media, non-governmental think tanks, and the core institutions of electoral politics. The organization describes itself currently as a voice for democracy. It has championed the rights of democratic activists, religious believers, trade unionists, journalists, and proponents of free markets. In 1967, Freedom House absorbed Books USA, which had created several years earlier by Edward R. Murrow. More recently, Freedom House has supported citizens involved in challenges to the regimes in Serbia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Tunisia

43.
Politics of Armenia
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Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, Armenia became independent from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic on 28 May 1918 as the First Republic of Armenia. After the First Republic collapsed on 2 December 1920, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union, the TSFSR dissolved in 1936 and Armenia became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union known as the Armenian SSR. The population of Armenia voted overwhelmingly for independence in a September 1991 referendum, Ter-Petrosyan had been elected head of government in 1990, when the National Democratic Union party defeated the Armenian Communist Party. Kocharyan was successful in riding out the unrest, in May 2000, Andranik Margaryan replaced Aram Sargsyan as Prime Minister. Kocharyans re-election as president in 2003 was followed by allegations of ballot-rigging. He went on to propose controversial constitutional amendments on the role of parliament and these were rejected in a referendum the following May at the same time as parliamentary elections which left Kocharyans party in a very powerful position in parliament. There were mounting calls for the Presidents resignation in early 2004 with thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets in support of demands for a referendum of confidence in him. The unicameral parliament is dominated by a coalition, called Unity, dashnaksutyun, which was outlawed by Ter-Petrosyan in 1995–96 but legalized again after Ter-Petrosyan resigned, also usually supports the government. The Government of Armenias stated aim is to build a Western-style parliamentary democracy as the basis of its form of government, for the most part however, Armenia is considered one of the more pro-democratic nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Observers noted, though, that parties and candidates have been able to mount credible campaigns. Elections since 1998 have represented an improvement in terms of fairness and efficiency, although they are still considered to have fallen short of international standards. The new constitution of 1995 greatly expanded the powers of the branch and gives it much more influence over the judiciary. The observance of human rights in Armenia is uneven and is marked by shortcomings, police brutality allegedly still goes largely unreported, while observers note that defendants are often beaten to extract confessions and are denied visits from relatives and lawyers. Freedom of religion is not always protected under existing law, nontraditional churches, especially the Jehovahs Witnesses, have been subjected to harassment, sometimes violently. All churches apart from the Armenian Apostolic Church must register with the government, the governments policy toward conscientious objection is in transition, as part of Armenias accession to the Council of Europe. Most of Armenias ethnic Azeri population was deported in 1988–1989 and remain refugees, Armenias record on discrimination toward the few remaining national minorities is generally good. The government does not restrict internal or international travel, although freedom of the press and speech are guaranteed, the government maintains its monopoly over television and radio broadcasting

44.
Politics of Azerbaijan
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Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, the Judiciary is nominally independent of the executive and the legislature. Following a massacre of Azerbaijanis at Khojali in Nagorno-Karabakh in March 1992, Mutalibov resigned, among its reforms, the PFP dissolved the predominantly Communist Supreme Soviet and transferred its functions to the 50-member upper house of the legislature, the National Council. Elections in June 1992 resulted in the selection of PFP leader Abulfaz Elchibey as the second president. During the summer of 1992, Elchibey secured the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Azerbaijan. At the same time, Elchibeys government established the national Caspian Navy, Elchibey was formally deposed by a national referendum in August 1993, and Aliyev was elected to a 5-year term as President in October with only token opposition. Aliyev won re-election to another 5-year term in 1998, in an election marred by serious irregularities, the Speaker of Parliament stood next in line to the President, but the constitution was changed at the end of 2002, now the premier is next in line. This was done to make it possible for the son of the 80-year-old Heydar, İlham Aliyev to succeed his father, in the October 2003 presidential elections, İlham Aliyev was announced winner while international observers reported several irregularities. He was sworn in as president at the end of the month, the head of state and head of government are separate from the country’s law-making body. President is the head of the state and head of executive branch, the people elect the president, the Vice President is appointed by the President and the Prime Minister is nominated by the President and confirmed by the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. The President appoints all cabinet-level government administrators, since 2008, the Constitution of Azerbaijan was amended, abolishing any term limit for the office of President. The National Assembly of Azerbaijan is the branch of government in Azerbaijan. The assembly is headed by the Speaker of Milli Majlis assisted by the First Deputy Speaker, ogtay Asadov is the current speaker of the assembly, Ziyafet Asgarov is the First Deputy Speaker and, Bahar Muradova and Valeh Alasgarov are deputy speakers. Azerbaijan is considered a one party dominant state, opposition parties against the New Azerbaijan Party are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. In the 2010 parliamentary elections, the ruling New Azerbaijan Party strengthened its grasp on the legislative, President Ilham Aliyevs ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party got a majority of 72 out of 125 seats. The other seats went to independent, government-leaning candidates. The two major parties lost their previous 8 seats, thus resulting in an opposition-free Parliament. The Central Election Commission said turnout was 50. 1%, out of a total 4.9 million people eligible to vote, opposition leaders suggested the low turnout was due to candidate disqualifications by the CEC, and consequent discouragements to vote after their choice of candidate was excluded

45.
Civil and political rights
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Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure ones ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society, Civil and political rights form the original and main part of international human rights. They comprise the first portion of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the phrase civil rights is a translation of Latin ius civis. Roman citizens could be either free or servile, but they all had rights in law. After the Edict of Milan in 313, these included the freedom of religion. Roman legal doctrine was lost during the Middle Ages, but claims of rights could still be made based on religious doctrine. According to the leaders of Ketts Rebellion, all men may be made free. In the 17th century, English common law judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship by arguing that Englishmen had historically enjoyed such rights, the Parliament of England adopted the English Bill of Rights in 1689. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, by George Mason and James Madison, was adopted in 1776, the Virginia declaration is the direct ancestor and model for the U. S. Bill of Rights. The removal by legislation of a civil right constitutes a civil disability, in early 19th century Britain, the phrase civil rights most commonly referred to the issue of such legal discrimination against Catholics. In the House of Commons support for civil rights was divided, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 restored their civil rights. In the 1860s, Americans adapted this usage to newly freed blacks, congress enacted civil rights acts in 1866,1871,1875,1957,1960,1964,1968, and 1991. Marshall notes that civil rights were among the first to be recognized and codified, followed later by political rights, in many countries, they are constitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined in human rights instruments, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Civil and political rights need not be codified to be protected, although most democracies worldwide do have formal written guarantees of civil, Civil rights are considered to be natural rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his A Summary View of the Rights of British America that a free people their rights as derived from the laws of nature, the question of to whom civil and political rights apply is a subject of controversy. According to political scientist Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr. Custom also plays a role, the United States Declaration of Independence states that people have unalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. It is considered by some that the purpose of government is the protection of life. Ideas of self-ownership and cognitive liberty affirm rights to choose the food one eats, the one takes